CIQ appoints Bjorn Hovland as President to lead global expansion at critical Inflection point for AI-driven secure infrastructure

Company accelerates growth strategy as nations and enterprises prioritize sovereign, high-performance operating systems for AI and HPC workloads

RENO, Nev., – December 17, 2025 – CIQ, the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux and a leader in high-performance software infrastructure, today announced the promotion of Bjorn Hovland from chief operating officer to president reporting to founder and CEO Gregory Kurtzer. The appointment comes as global demand for enterprise-grade, sovereign infrastructure solutions reaches unprecedented levels, driven by the explosive growth of AI and high-performance computing deployments worldwide and securing that infrastructure. Hovland's elevation reflects CIQ's strategic positioning at a pivotal moment: as AI infrastructure decentralizes globally and the operating system emerges as a critical competitive advantage for nations and enterprises building next-generation AI capabilities.

Throughout 2025, CIQ has delivered a consistent cadence of innovations addressing the core challenges facing organizations deploying AI and HPC workloads at scale: GPU software complexity, hybrid infrastructure orchestration, rapid cluster deployment and enterprise-grade security for sovereign environments.

"We're witnessing a fundamental shift in how the world approaches AI infrastructure," said Hovland. "Nations and enterprises are recognizing that the operating system isn't just a commodity, it's a strategic asset that determines speed, cost-efficiency and sovereignty. Rocky Linux and our complete infrastructure stack give organizations the control they need to build AI ecosystems on their own terms, without vendor lock-in or compromise on performance. CIQ is positioned uniquely at the intersection of open source innovation, enterprise-grade reliability and high-performance computing expertise."

The global AI landscape is fragmenting from a centralized model to a multi-polar architecture, with new centers of AI influence emerging across the Middle East, Asia, and Europe. This decentralization is driving demand for infrastructure that balances critical requirements. CIQ's portfolio, spanning Rocky Linux enterprise distributions, Fuzzball for cluster orchestration, Warewulf Pro for HPC management and Ascender Pro for automation, addresses these requirements directly, providing the full infrastructure stack needed for sovereign AI deployments.

"Bjorn is the ideal partner to execute our vision at this inflection point," said Gregory Kurtzer, founder and CEO of CIQ. "He combines rare technical depth with operational discipline and strategic acumen. As we scale to meet unprecedented global demand for sovereign AI infrastructure, Bjorn's ability to synthesize complex competitive dynamics and drive execution in real time makes him the perfect person to lead our day-to-day operations and accelerate our growth trajectory. This allows me to focus on our long-term technical and company strategy as we navigate this period of expansion."

In his COO role, Hovland drove product strategy, operations and go-to-market execution for CIQ's Enterprise Linux, HPC and cloud infrastructure solutions. A technologist and inventor, Hovland holds more than 20 U.S. patents across environmental sensing, connectivity and data systems. His career spans building award-winning platforms that merge advanced software engineering with commercial execution, including development work that generated over $100 million in revenue. His leadership bridges deep technical expertise with the operational rigor required to scale complex, high-performance products.

CIQ also announced the appointment of Ramesh Srinivasan as vice president of sales. Most recently at Oracle, Srinivasan brings over 30 years of enterprise sales leadership with a proven track record scaling open source, Linux and cloud-native businesses from early-stage to significant market presence.

Srinivasan's expertise spans the full spectrum of modern infrastructure, from Linux and virtualization to cloud-native and AI-driven solutions. His ability to blend technical depth with strategic vision positions him to accelerate CIQ's growth trajectory, expand market presence and strengthen relationships across enterprise, commercial and channel ecosystems.