# Bob Young

> Canadian entrepreneur Bob Young co-founded Red Hat and served as its founding CEO, then founded self-publishing company Lulu. He is also the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ caretaker and a backer of open technology, including Bluesky. His career connects software, publishing and sports through an interest in customers and communities.

- **Role:** Founder and Chairman at Lulu; Caretaker of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats
- **Organizations:** Red Hat, Lulu Press, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Hamilton Sports Group, Forge FC, Canadian Premier League, Center for the Public Domain, Needlepoint.com
- **From:** Hamilton, Canada
- **Nationality:** Canadian
- **Education:** Bachelor of Arts, Victoria College, University of Toronto, Trinity College School
- **Known for:** Helped establish a commercial business around open-source Linux as Red Hat’s co-founder and founding CEO., Led Red Hat during its 1999 IPO before handing the CEO role to Matthew Szulik., Founded Lulu, which had published and distributed work by 2.1 million authors by its twentieth anniversary in 2022.

## Career timeline

- **1976** — Graduated from the University of Toronto.
- **1984** — Founded Vernon Computer Rentals.
- **1993** — Incorporated ACC, the computer software catalog business that preceded the Red Hat partnership.
- **1995** — Joined businesses with Marc Ewing as Red Hat Software and served as CEO.
- **1999** — Red Hat went public in August. Matthew Szulik succeeded Young as CEO on November 15; Young continued as chairman.
- **2002** — Founded Lulu, a print-on-demand and self-publishing company.
- **2003** — Became owner and Caretaker of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on October 7.
- **2005** — Announced his resignation from the Red Hat board on October 18 to focus on Lulu.
- **2006** — Established the Lulu Blooker Prize for books originating as blogs.
- **2014** — Tim Hortons Field opened following a stadium deal he helped broker.
- **2021** — Retired as Lulu CEO; Kathy Hensgen succeeded him.
- **2023** — Named among Bluesky seed investors and inducted into the Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame.
- **2026** — Discussed customer service and an inverted organization chart on Branducation with Bill Harper in May.

## Achievements

- Helped establish a commercial business around open-source Linux as Red Hat’s co-founder and founding CEO.
- Led Red Hat during its 1999 IPO before handing the CEO role to Matthew Szulik.
- Founded Lulu, which had published and distributed work by 2.1 million authors by its twentieth anniversary in 2022.
- Helped secure the stadium project that opened as Tim Hortons Field in September 2014.
- Inducted into the Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame in 2023 in the builder category for football and soccer.
- Participated in Bluesky’s $8 million seed round announced in July 2023.

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — Appeared on Branducation with Bill Harper on May 12 to discuss customers, team building and inverting the organization chart.
- **2025-09** — Hamilton Sports Group’s ownership group, including Young, was identified in the announcement of Jim Lawson becoming vice chair.
- **2025-07** — Appeared on Alisa Cohn’s From Start-Up to Grown-Up podcast on July 1 to discuss open source and entrepreneurship.

## Links

- Website: https://www.lulu.com/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/CaretakerBob

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/bob-young
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-20