Donning a red fedora for the occasion, Gov. Bev Perdue announced Monday homegrown “upstart” company Red Hat will build its corporate headquarters somewhere in Wake County – and maintain its presence on Centennial Campus.
According to Perdue, the company brought innovative technology to light a decade ago. On the strength of a multimillion-dollar incentive package, the company will keep its headquarters in Wake County rather than moving to one of three other competing states.
“When this upstart little company came to us 10 years ago, they had a vision of where the future was going,” Perdue said. “They are successful and will continue to be successful and they could have gone anywhere they wanted. It is a great day in Raleigh.”
Red Hat, a leading company in open source technology, currently resides in about 188,000 square feet on Centennial Campus and has initiated extensive partnerships within the University, according to College of Engineering Vice Chancellor Dennis Kekas.
“We are very pleased to have [Red Hat] at N.C. State. They have been a very positive factor for growth on Centennial Campus,” said Kekas. “They are currently involved in many focused projects on campus, including researching how to make open software more secure, updating the computer science curriculum and funding the Institute for Next Generation IT Systems – as well as the OSCAR lab.”
According to Kekas, Red Hat has grown considerably since its initial days and it will likely expand beyond the University’s capacity.
“When they started off, they only took up a couple floors in one building. Now, they are using 188,000 square feet of office space, employ between 650 and 700 people on campus and [are] still expanding,” Kekas said. “Even if their new headquarters is no longer on campus, this will still be an opportunity to grow our partnership with Red Hat. At some point they will be too big for the campus, but there is certainly room now.”
According to Perdue, the company typically grows at least 20 percent annually and it will create approximately 540 new jobs when the new headquarters opens.
Though there is no determined location for the new corporate headquarters, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst said North Carolina was chosen over other national competitors because of Red Hat’s extensive University partnerships and an $18 million incentive package to be paid out by the state.
Despite vocal concerns regarding the sizable package, Perdue said she stands by the amount.
“Contrary to what the world would like, it is necessary to offer companies like Red Hat incentive packages in order to be competitive and these economic times these companies have to look for the best deal they can get,” Perdue said. “North Carolina offers great economic incentives as well as great quality of life and our workforce makes this the best place in America to do business. Decisions were made for all the right reasons.”
Red Hat Chief Executive Jim Whitehurst confirmed the importance of such incentives, citing it as the main reason North Carolina was chosen over other major potential locations, including Texas, Georgia and Massachusetts.
“Even in the best of times you have to make important decisions based on economics,” Whitehurst said. “We have enjoyed a great 10-year partnership with North Carolina, but without the direct economic incentives we would not have been able to stay.”
The only question now, according to Chancellor Randy Woodson, is where the headquarters will be built.
“It is great to hear that Red Hat is staying in Wake County and on campus. The University has had a strong relationship with Red Hat since the beginning when it got its start with the expertise of scientists and engineers from N.C. State,” said Woodson. “It would be great to keep a major, publicly-traded company in the long term.”
According to Marc Hoit, vice chancellor of the Office of Information Technology, should Red Hat decide to keep its corporate headquarters on campus it would further foster a uniquely beneficial relationship between the corporation and the University.
“We are glad to hear they are staying, and we’d clearly like them to stay on campus. The promise of Centennial Campus is the interactions we build between the students and the companies – as both an opportunity for research and training,” Hoit said. “This is a futuristic concept that is even better than what Research Triangle Park provides.”
