Linux Foundation Names Markus Rex as Chief Technology Officer

The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux , today announced that Markus Rex, a long-time Linux executive at SUSE Linux AG and Novell, will serve as chief technology officer at the Foundation. Rex, who will be on loan to the Linux Foundation from Novell, has been a leading proponent of Linux standardization throughout his career and brings strong Linux technical leadership to the role. As the Linux Foundation's CTO, Rex will help drive new standardization and technical initiatives around Linux and promote Linux adoption more broadly.

"We're extremely thrilled to have Markus Rex join our management team. Rex has been a leader in the Linux industry since the early days of Linux, having joined SUSE Linux AG in 1999 and making it one of the leading commercial distributions on the market today," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. "We appreciate Novell's willingness to lend its technical and financial support to the community with this initiative and hope it serves as a model for the future. Much like open source development itself, this unique approach allows us to neutrally leverage talented personnel from the Linux ecosystem for the greater benefit of Linux Foundation members. "

As CTO, Rex will lead all technical initiatives for the Linux Foundation, including oversight of the Linux Standard Base and other workgroups such as Open Printing. He will also be the primary technical interface to LF members and the LF's Technical Advisory Board who represent the kernel community. Upon completion of his tenure at the Linux Foundation, currently slated for end 2008, Rex will return to Novell.

"By unifying the resources of the greater Linux ecosystem, the Linux Foundation provides crucial standardization, promotion and collaboration services for the continued advancement of Linux," Rex said. "I look forward to working with members of the community and the Linux Foundation to ensure that the promise of Linux is delivered. We're at a very exciting time for the Linux market, and I'm pleased to be able to contribute to the Linux Foundation's work."

Rex has a long history of strategy and product management in the Linux arena. He joined Novell in February 2004 with Novell's acquisition of SUSE Linux AG. At Novell, he has served as vice president and general manager for SUSE Linux, CTO for the Open Platform Solutions Group, and most recently as vice president of services strategy. He joined SUSE Linux AG in 1999, serving as head of development and later as vice president of research and development, where he oversaw SUSE's growth from 15 engineers in 1999 to more than 200 in 2004. Rex has previously served as a board member to the Free Standards Group and the Linux Foundation. Prior to joining SUSE, Rex worked in the department of Computer Science at the University of Erlangen and as an IT consultant at Philips in Prague.

The Linux Foundation promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by providing unified resources and services needed for open source to successfully compete with closed platforms. The Linux Foundation offers application developers standardization services and support that make Linux an attractive target for their development efforts. These include the Linux Standard Base (LSB) and the Linux Developer Network. All major Linux distributions comply with the LSB. The Linux Foundation also manages the Linux trademark and offers developers legal intellectual property protection. The Foundation serves as a neutral forum to advance the interests of Linux and fosters innovation by hosting collaborative events among the Linux technical community, application developers, industry and end users to solve pressing issues facing the Linux ecosystem.