The new year brings some management changes at Cisco. Charlie Giancarlo recently retired from the company to join tech buyout firm, Silver Lake Partners. Charlie spent 14 years at Cisco and was most recently the Chief Development Officer, effectively the #2 executive and possible successor to CEO, John Chambers.

From the Cisco press release:

“After joining Cisco through the acquisition of Kalpana, a pioneer in ethernet switching, Giancarlo started Cisco’s business development organization and developed Cisco’s successful M&A strategy. He initiated and then led Cisco’s Small and Medium business activities including contributing to the development of Cisco’s channel strategy. Giancarlo also initiated and led a large number of Cisco’s advanced and emerging technologies including Unified Communications, home networking, wireless networking, security, video, and TelePresence among many others.”

I’ve been at Cisco for a few months, working as a consultant and advising on new market strategy. We’re looking at whitespaces that might be considered non-traditional for the company but which leverage my background in the web, software and digital media.

Another senior executive, Dave Leonard, also transitioned recently (to start a clean-tech business). Dave has been the General Manager of the company’s $5bn cash cow switching business unit.  It goes without saying that Cisco’s ability to branch out and experiment into new markets is in part due to domination in switching. So, new things you find the company successful with (TelePresence, etc.) are tied to this core even while there remains lots of potential for these existing businesses to pioneer new spaces too.

This is my third large company experience (AOL and Goldman Sachs). I’ve always found it somewhat challenging for a big company to send off a long-time employee or major contributor (such as a senior executive) in the right way though this one appears to be handled really well.

• Giancarlo to Leave Cisco
• Senior Executive Is Leaving Cisco Systems - NY Times

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Tags: Cisco, Charlie Giancarlo, switching, Dave Leonard, TelePresence,