Red Hat is bulking up its lobbying muscle by recruiting a top government affairs executive from a software industry trade group.

The Raleigh-based company, which is the world's largest distributor of open-source software, today named Mark Bohannon as its vice president of Corporate Affairs and Global Public Policy as of Oct. 1.

As Red Hat's prominence in the global software market continues to rise, company officials want to ensure they have government allies on issues such as technology policy, intellectual property legislation and tax regulation. Bohannon also will push government agencies to embrace the use of open source software and standards.