Marc Ewing
Marc Ewing | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1969 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Carnegie Mellon University (1992) |
| Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur, computer engineer |
| Employer(s) | IBM (early career), Red Hat (founder) |
| Known for | Founder of Red Hat, Red Hat Linux distributions |
Marc Ewing is an American entrepreneur and computer engineer, widely recognized as the founder of the Red Hat software company, especially noted for the Red Hat Linux distributions. In the mid-1990s, he also played a role in the 86open initiative.
Early life
Ewing, whose father worked as a programmer at IBM, developed programming skills early on by attending computer camps and working with systems from Apollo and Commodore. He completed his studies at Carnegie Mellon University in 1992. During his time at CMU, he was known among peers as the "man in the red hat" due to his distinctive headwear.
Career
Following graduation, Ewing began his engineering career at IBM. While employed there, he tailored Linux workstation configurations, which ultimately led to the inception of the Red Hat Linux Project. Alongside co-founder Bob Young, they chose the company name inspired by Ewing’s trademark red hat.
At the height of the 1999 dot com bubble, Ewing’s personal fortune was estimated to approach $900 million.
Ewing departed from Red Hat and went on to co-establish Alpinist, a quarterly publication centered on mountaineering, in 2002. Subsequently, he pursued desert racing and became a co-founder of Riot Racing in 2008.