Jim Whitehurst

Jim Whitehurst is a business executive with experience in management consulting, aviation, enterprise software, and gaming technology. Whitehurst began his career at Boston Consulting Group, advancing to partner and holding corporate development leadership roles in the Chicago, Hong Kong, and Shanghai offices, as well as serving clients in the Atlanta office across various industries. He is a graduate of Rice University, holds a General Course degree from the London School of Economics, and earned a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University.

Whitehurst held executive roles at Delta Air Lines, serving as senior vice president, chief network and planning officer, and later chief operating officer. He oversaw the company’s bankruptcy proceedings and its recovery from an attempted takeover by US Airways. Whitehurst played a key role in the campaign known as Keep Delta My Delta, resisting the merger proposal and guiding the airline through a turbulent period in the aviation industry.

At Red Hat, an open source enterprise software company, Whitehurst led business development, finance, and global operations. Under his leadership, Red Hat became the first open source software company to reach $1 billion in revenue, with revenue growing from more than $500 million to nearly $3 billion during his tenure. Market capitalization increased more than tenfold. Whitehurst’s approach to leadership and organizational culture during this period formed the basis for his book, "The Open Organization: Igniting Passion and Performance," published by Harvard Business Review.

IBM acquired Red Hat for $34 billion, after which Whitehurst served as Red Hat’s president and CEO before becoming president of IBM. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna credited Whitehurst with playing a pivotal role in the IBM and Red Hat integration and in articulating IBM’s strategy. After stepping down as IBM president, Whitehurst continued as a senior advisor to IBM’s executive leadership team.

Whitehurst later served as interim CEO of Unity Technologies and was appointed executive chair of the Unity Board. He serves on several boards of directors, including United Airlines, and is an advisory board member for Santander Bank. Whitehurst is a regular speaker at corporate and industry events, has delivered a TED Talk, and hosts a management and leadership video series titled "An Open Conversation With Jim." He is a managing director at Silver Lake, a private equity firm focused on the information technology sector.