Driving Impact with Strong Leadership – Cisco Blogs

Cisco’s purpose is to power an inclusive future for all, and that purpose infuses all that we do, whether it’s our deep focus on delivering the best results for our customers, partners, and employees, or our commitment to making a difference in communities across the world. That purpose also guides our strategy for driving innovation – we are committed to helping our customers connect, secure and automate their digital agility in a cloud-first world, and the true breadth of our portfolio illustrates that.

A committed strategy to delivering the best results for all our stakeholders requires the best leaders to push it forward, and today I am excited to share some leadership updates that will help us drive incredible impact across critical areas.

Fran Katsoudas Named Chief People, Policy & Purpose Officer

When I became CEO, one of my stated goals was simple – for Cisco to be the greatest place to work in the world. To have achieved that honor once, let alone twice, is astonishing, and that accomplishment was only made possible with strong leadership from Fran Katsoudas, who has led our People & Communities organization for over five years. I’m excited to share that Fran will now be our Chief People, Policy & Purpose Officer, and that our best-in-class Global Government Affairs and Country Digital Acceleration team will move into Fran’s organization.

The policies set by the countries and governments around the world in which we operate have meaningful impact on our people, our communities and our business and they’ve become more intricately embedded in our overall business strategy. By bringing these teams together, I believe we will bring the best experience for our people as well as enrich the communities around us, and Fran is the best leader to drive this effort forward.

Liz Centoni Named Chief Strategy Officer and General Manager, Applications

For the past year, under Liz Centoni’s leadership, we have been able to anticipate, invest in, and incubate new technologies that we can scale and take to market, while also solidifying the strategy that will enable us to deliver on our innovation promise. I’m excited to share that Liz will now also lead our Applications business as our Chief Strategy Officer and General Manager, Applications. A critical part of our strategy is delivering simply the best application experiences for our customers, as applications are now the lifeline for so many businesses.

I’m excited that Liz will lead our full-stack observability efforts, which will include and be aligned to our AppDynamics business. Liz has a strong track record in identifying key innovation, driving scale and translating that into revenue growth. The AppDynamics team, led by Linda Tong, is developing innovation that is truly game-changing. I believe bringing AppDynamics together with our full-stack observability strategy under Liz’s leadership will allow us to provide even greater value to our customers in the future.

Jeetu Patel will continue to lead our Security and Collaboration businesses, both high growth markets for us. During his time at Cisco, he has shown a deep ability to drive differentiation in these two intensely competitive markets. Going forward, he will be hyper-focused on increasing our velocity of innovation in these areas to ensure our success.

Maria Martinez Named Chief Operating Officer

I am also excited to share that Maria Martinez, who has led our Customer Experience (CX) team for the past two and a half years, is now our new Chief Operating Officer (COO). Maria has recently taken on leading a large segment of our Operations team, in addition to CX, and she has moved quickly to align this new team to accelerate our business transformation and drive maximum impact.

Maria has a clear vision for what success looks like and has proven her ability to work across multiple functions to transform and do what is best for Cisco. As our COO, Maria is responsible for Cisco’s operations and transformation, as well as building high-value experiences for our customers, partners, and employees. This will serve as the anchor for our future success as we bring greater innovation to customers to meet their future needs, and I am excited to see all that she will help drive in this critical role for us.

Confidence in the Future

As we continue to accelerate the pace of our strategic execution and innovation for our customers and partners, it’s critical that we continue to support our people and communities, increase our cross-company collaboration, and operationalize our execution efforts, and these newly defined roles will help us move forward with even greater speed and deeper focus. I truly believe that at Cisco we are united with a common purpose and a mindset rooted in growth, conviction and ambition, and there is nothing we can’t achieve. With these three fantastic leaders driving key areas of our business, I am excited for what we will accomplish, and I am confident that we have a unique opportunity to shape the future for our customers, partners, and employees, and to continue to make a positive impact in the world around us.

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