Viju Chakarapany is the Senior Director and Head of Red Hat’s Asia Pacific (APAC) Solution Architecture (SA) and Enablement teams. He firmly believes that open source technologies will be the catalyst for innovation today and in the future, as well as positively transforming people, businesses, operations and processes. His advocacy for open-source dates back to his Masters’ final thesis, in which he argued for its viability and efficacy in government entities. At Red Hat, Viju leads over 250 solution architects and leaders in deploying Red Hat’s vast portfolio of products and solutions to solve customers’ business challenges. Across the APAC region, he also spearheads the implementation of cutting-edge people strategies like the Technology Thought Leadership Program.

For over two decades now, Viju has built, transformed and led dynamic teams in sales, pre-sales, services and business management across APAC and the Middle East; including a 16-year stint at Microsoft. A Harvard Business School alumnus, he has an Electrical and Computer Engineering degree as well as an MBA (IT). He is also an alumnus of the Red Hat Accelerated Leadership Development Program, where he further enhanced his strengths in building teams through strong leadership, razor-sharp business focus and the ability to ‘fail fast, learn fast’.

Personally, Viju is passionate about running; having completed several marathons, and about giving back to society; through extensive fundraising for non-profits that focus on children’s education and health, like ABCs and Rice (Cambodia) and the Singapore Children’s Cancer Foundation. He also reaches out to, and guides, young students as part of the Harvard Business School Club of Singapore mentorship program.