“Red Hat board member trades one mission for another”

“Red Hat board member trades one mission for another”

Published on February 19, 2009 by Graham in General Religion and Spirituality

CNET News has a nice article about a board member from Red Hat that is leaving the company to serve as a mission president in Japan:

Steve Albrecht, a longstanding Red Hat board member, has resigned from Red Hat’s board effective June 30, 2009. The reason? Albrecht, originally tapped six years ago by Red Hat chairman Matthew Szulik, will serve as a mission president in Japan for the Mormon Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), starting in early July.

It’s a new mission for Albrecht, but will require many of the same attributes that made him a successful board member for Red Hat.

It would appear that the author of the story is also a member (or at least his father is). The official Red Hat release is here.

We often talk about the great sacrifice it is for young men and women to go on a mission for a year and a half or two years. It surely is. But it is also an impressive sacrifice that mission presidents and their family (sometimes just their wife, sometimes with their children as well) have to give up their home and employment for 3 years. Some of these families are certainly financially able to do this (a few years ago, the president of the Canada Toronto West Mission was Alan Ashton, the founder of WordPerfect); others struggle. Whether proselyting missionaries, mission presidents and their family, or service missionaries, the blessings of service more than make up for the time away.