Cisco names “Global Advocate Awards 2023: Americas” winners

Now in its third year, the Cisco Global Advocate Awards celebrates Cisco’s customer advocates who go above and beyond in demonstrating thought leadership and supporting Cisco through success stories, speaking engagements, product reviews, and so much more. What better venue to thank Cisco’s top customer advocates for their advocacy and innovation than at the company’s flagship Cisco Live conferences, held around the world? 

Cisco previously named customer advocate winners across EMEA at Cisco Live in Amsterdam in February of this year. We wrapped our celebration for Cisco customers throughout the Americas region just yesterday, June 7, in a standing-room crowd at Cisco Live in Las Vegas. We’ll close out 2023 by naming top customer advocates in APJC at Cisco Live in Melbourne, coming up in December. 

Celebrating excellence in advocacy and innovation

From executives to engineers, our exclusive advocacy awards attracted an impressive mix of customer titles and companies. Cisco senior leaders from sales, marketing, and customer experience (CX) rounded out the crowd, as we awarded 10 winners in 10 categories.  

We received close to 90 nominations for our Americas event and relied on the expertise of more than two dozen judges, a combination of Cisco leaders and external industry experts across technology, marketing, and advocacy sectors. Awards host Bryan Chan highlighted all shortlisted nominees before announcing winners in each category, while Cisco marketing and sales executives congratulated winners with personalized crystal plaques. Shortlisted nominees also received a “surprise and delight” gift box through the mail that included, among several items, a Global Advocate Awards 2023 branded cocktail glass.  

Congratulations to our winners!

Let’s find out who the winners are from the Cisco Global Advocate Awards 2023: Americas event. 

Americas Customer Advocate of the Year

Our award for Americas Customer Advocate of the Year went to Jeremy Shupick with Wyoming Machinery Company. Jeremy, a “model Rockstar,” has been in our Cisco Insider Advocates community since 2019 and earned his title of Rockstar based on active engagement. Our Cisco team noted Jeremy’s daily presence in our community, where he contributes to discussion threads, shares best practices, and joins us in social promotion. Learn more about Jeremy here.

Congratulations to our shortlisted nominees:

• Pierce Vasale with Atrium Health 
• Tim Roberts with St. Anne Institute 

Americas Executive Advocate of the Year

Congratulations to Shival Seth of Grand River Hospital, named Americas Executive Advocate of the Year, a category targeted to Cisco’s executive customers. As Chief Technology Officer, Shival oversees the hospital’s technology integrations. He put Cisco Webex at the center of their network not only to ensure collaboration between employees, but as the foundation for the hospital’s virtual care offerings. Shival frequently presents at conferences on Cisco’s behalf, making him an ideal candidate for this award. Read more about the hospital’s work with Cisco here.

Congratulations to our shortlisted nominees:

• Steve Ferguson with Technical College System of Georgia 
• David Smith with U.S. Bank 
• Leah Kraus with North Carolina Central University

Industry Excellence Award

Our Industry Excellence award is open to organizations in the public sector, or in the private sector industries of manufacturing, retail, or financial services. Congratulations to J.D. Whitlock and the team at Dayton Children’s Hospital for their commitment to the highest quality care for children’s health. This hospital put Cisco Secure solutions at the center of its zero-trust architecture. Learn more here.

Congratulations to our shortlisted nominees:

• Kenneth R. Keena with Gwinnett County Department of Transportation 
• Nathan Bullock with Interstates  
• Nicole Aldertate-Ferrini with the City of El Paso, Texas  
• Brad Welsh with the Office of Technology, State of Indiana

Excellence in Storytelling

Bryan Laszlo, on behalf of the team at Carhartt, took top honors in our award for Excellence in Storytelling. The team at Carhartt actively supports Cisco in storytelling through written and video stories, as well as media opportunities. Bryan most recently presented a Carhartt use case at Cisco Live in Las Vegas. Thanks for your partnership, Bryan!

Congratulations to our shortlisted nominees:

• Nathan Bullock with Interstates 
• David Smith with U.S. Bank 

CX Ambassador of the Year

Our award for CX Ambassador of the Year went to Laurence Persing with Stifel Nicolaus. Our Cisco Insider Advocates community has an exclusive channel for Cisco’s Customer Experience (CX) services and offerings. Laurence impressed our judges with his enthusiasm and engagement inside the Cisco CX channel throughout the year, which earned him the number 4 spot on the CX channel leaderboard and in the top 20 as a CX channel social influencer.

Congratulations to our shortlisted nominees:

• Bhupendra Niroula with American Airlines 
• Paulo Thame with Prefeitura Santana de Parnaíba

Hybrid Work Hero

Joshua Baever with T-Mobile was named our Hybrid Work Hero. Joshua and his team relied on Cisco Webex to keep T-Mobile’s 50,000 employees connected and productive during the pandemic. They’ve since grown their Cisco Webex deployment in T-Mobile’s offices from 300 rooms to 2,500 in the span of two years. Read more about Joshua’s journey with Cisco here.

Congratulations to our shortlisted nominees:

• Javier D’Addino with BVS Technology Services 
• Chris Cavendish with Insight Global 
• Tim Roberts with St. Anne Institute 

Transformation Trailblazer

Congratulations to Daniel Kelcher with IP Fabric, our Transformation Trailblazer. Daniel joined us in Las Vegas this year as a “Road to Cisco Live” winner, a competition held in the Cisco Insider Advocates community. Working with Cisco solutions throughout his career, Daniel holds Cisco certifications that include CCNA, CCNP, and DevNet Associate. Daniel and his team cut downtime across their network from several hours to a few minutes with the help of Cisco solutions: a transformation success story!

Congratulations to our shortlisted nominees:

• Nate Haleen with Procellis Technology, Inc.  
• Mike Newton with Atrium Health  
• Jeremy Shupick with Wyoming Machinery Company  
• Bhupendra Niroula with American Airlines 

Reimagine Applications Visionary

Brad Welsh with the Office of Technology, State of Indiana was named our Reimagine Applications Visionary. Cisco’s Application Performance Management solutions monitor more than 125 of the State’s business-critical applications that process 20 million transactions daily. Brad noted in his award submission that he and his team regularly share their successes and learnings with Cisco through an APM Program website. Feedback like this is essential—much appreciated, Brad! 

Congratulations to our shortlisted nominees:

• Amit Gumber with HCL America 
• Nate Haleen with Procellis Technology, Inc. 

Innovation Champion

Congratulations to Amit Gumber with HCL America, who was named our Innovation Champion. Amit is a repeat winner in the Global Advocate Awards, having won the Future of Work Visionary category in 2021. This year, Amit shared that he and his team were able to achieve single-pane-of-glass automation in their data center thanks to a suite of Cisco solutions. They now have a unified automation platform across fabrics, from the data center to the cloud to the edge. Amit is active in the Cisco Insider Advocates community, sharing best practices, joining discussion threads, and participating in Cisco technology roadmap sessions.

Congratulations to our shortlisted nominees:

• Daniel Kelcher with IP Fabric
• Jeremy Shupick with Wyoming Machinery Company 
• Tim Roberts with St. Anne Institute 

Cybersecurity Defender of the Year

Our award for Cybersecurity Defender of the Year goes to Dr. Christopher Mitchell with the City of Houston, Texas. Houston is home to the Johnson Space Center and is one of the largest ports in the U.S., making it a prime target for cyber–attacks. Dr. Mitchell and his team use Cisco Secure solutions as a prime line of defense, and he shared his use case presentation at Cisco Live in Las Vegas this year.

Congratulations to our shortlisted nominees:

• Mark Rodrigue with Room & Board, Inc. 
• Gary Burgess with Qdoba Restaurant Corporation 
• Marcelo Morais with 4xpert TI 
• Jacob Lorz with Cintas Corporation

Next up: Global Advocate Awards 2023: APJC

The Global Advocate Awards 2023: Americas event is in the books, but our team is already planning our next celebration of advocacy excellence and innovation at Cisco Live in Melbourne this December. We hope to see you there!

Congratulations to our Cisco Global Advocates Awards: Americas winners, and to all of our shortlisted nominees!

We applaud each of you for your passion, innovation, and support for Cisco’s advocacy initiatives.

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