Senior Cisco Manager Out in Reshuffle
March 21 2016 - 8:50PM
Dow Jones News
Cisco Systems Inc. announced a set of executive shifts that
include the departure of Kelly Ahuja, an 18-year company veteran
who has overseen its sales to communications-service providers.
Yvette Kanouff, another senior vice president who joined Cisco
in 2014, will assume Mr. Ahuja's former duties as part of an
expanded service-provider organization, the company said
Monday.
Other changes include appointing Zorawar Biri Singh, another
senior vice president who joined Cisco last year, to lead a cloud
services and platforms division. He had previously served as chief
technology officer for platforms and solutions.
The moves are the latest sign that Chuck Robbins, who succeeded
John Chambers as CEO last summer, is refining the company's
leadership team to respond to new market pressures.
Cisco, the biggest maker of networking equipment, faces
particular challenges in dealing with service providers that are
big buyers of switching and routing gear. The company has lost some
market share in routers purchased by service providers, said Ray
Mota, managing director of ACG Research, which tracks the
sector.
At the same time, some big customers in that industry are
adopting new software offerings that require less specialized
equipment. While lowering hardware costs is one motivation, a
bigger one is the need to more quickly develop new services, Mr.
Mota said.
Mr. Mota said he was surprised by Mr. Ahuja's departure, despite
what he called "mixed" results in selling to service providers
lately.
"That is a tough loss for Cisco," he said.
Another issue is that Pankaj Patel, an executive vice president
who has overseen product development, has set plans to leave the
company later this year. He will continue to lead networking,
market segments and solutions in the meantime, Cisco said.
Ms. Kanouf, who joined Cisco from Cablevision Systems Corp. last
September, had been named senior vice president and general manager
for cloud solutions. She will report to Mr. Patel in her new
position, Cisco said.
In other changes, Liz Centoni was promoted to senior vice
president and given responsibility to lead Cisco's computing
systems product group. She had been a vice president and chief of
staff for engineering.
Write to Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 21, 2016 20:35 ET (00:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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