My First Day at SUSE

Today is a day full of excitement for me – my first as CEO of SUSE.

It’s a real honor. From my first days in the industry, the SUSE name has been synonymous with openness, innovation, and excellence. I’ve always rated and admired people I’ve met who work here.

SUSE has always been a pioneer. The team’s been known as Linux leaders for 30 plus years and today we are breaking new ground in Enterprise Container Management and Edge. Our technology allows the world’s most influential companies to innovate everywhere – from the data center to the cloud, the edge, and beyond.

Open source to my core

Open source has always been a big part of my life. It is present in everything from SUSE’s contributions to the community and no vendor lock-in, to the transparency with which the company operates – internally and externally. SUSE’s commitment to being open is a cultural reality, a vital quality for the modern age.

Before open source was my career, it was my passion. I’m an engineer at heart and that’s never changed, despite the many roles I have done since I started out. I still code at weekends. My current project is working on a better way of automating kitchen blinds!

My professional life has been defined by the belief that open source development is a powerful force for progress in this world. Its track record speaks for itself. It is no accident that open source has been at the center of every recent technological breakthrough. I am convinced that sharing ideas – pooling creativity – is the secret to all innovation. Success tastes best when it’s shared.

A culture of collaboration

Sharing ideas openly helps our creativity and drives transformative innovation. I have been a builder of businesses and global teams throughout my career, and openness, transparency, and directness are central to how I lead.

Great cultures are meritocracies: where creativity is rewarded, where difference is celebrated, where the people with the best ideas are empowered to take ownership of initiatives. Yes, leaders need to lead, make decisions – and I will ask for your support when those times come – but I believe in an environment where everybody’s ideas have a place. That’s what I’ll fight for at SUSE.

There’s no big announcement today. I am here to listen, to learn, to have conversations and to absorb all the different perspectives I can.

Evolving together

The open source development model has been – and still is – driving the exponential innovation happening around us. SUSE is uniquely placed to bring this innovation to our customers with products and services that are optimized for highly secure and business critical environments.

This will require us to keep what is best of SUSE, but also be brave and challenge ourselves to be better. Behind SUSE is a unique, important 30-year history. The potential for the next 30 years and beyond is immense. It is an honor to become part of the SUSE story alongside colleagues, customers, communities and partners.

Together, we have a chance to make an impact that lasts. We must be agile and unafraid to evolve. We have to be ambitious in how we view opportunities and bold in how we seize them.

I’m so excited about day one – and all the rest to follow.

DP