Key Cisco leader Giancarlo steps down

He was seen as the heir-apparent to Chambers

By Stephen Lawson

December 20, 2007 12:00 PM ET

Comments

IDG News Service - Charles Giancarlo, who was seen as a likely candidate to head Cisco Systems, has resigned from the networking giant after 14 years to "pursue new professional opportunities," Cisco announced Thursday.

Giancarlo has played a number of important roles at Cisco, and became executive vice president and chief development officer in 2005. Leadership of the company's overall engineering, product and technology strategy will be turned over to a Development Council of seven leaders, which was formed earlier this month under Giancarlo's leadership, Cisco said in a statement.

He will leave the company on Dec. 31.

The Development Council will report to Chairman and CEO John Chambers. Formation of the group fits Cisco's recent push for collaboration in place of traditional top-down management. Chambers has said that executive teams within Cisco have helped the company move faster.

It's the second major departure from Cisco in less than a year. In February, Michelangelo Volpi, the head of Cisco's routing and service provider businesses, and also seen as a possible heir to the top spot, resigned to later head up online video company Joost.

Giancarlo, 50, joined Cisco through the acquisition of Kalpana, an early Ethernet switching company. He developed Cisco's acquisition strategy and led several of the company's advanced and emerging technologies, including wireless networking, unified communications, security, video and Telepresence, Cisco said.

"Cisco is very proud to have had Charlie as one of its leaders, and he will always be considered part of Cisco's extended family," Chambers said in a written statement.

Comment Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2009 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Jump to comments

Cisco Systems Inc.

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER

EFD vs. HDD - What You Need to Know

Enterprise flash drives provide a new Tier 0 storage layer capable of delivering high I/O performance at a very low latency. Proper use of EFDs in an Oracle environment can deliver increased performance compared to fibre channel drives. Read the recommendations for identification of the best DB components for EFDs.

WHITE PAPER

Gartner Research Report: Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers, 2009

The market for products to improve the delivery of application software over networks remains dynamic and innovative. Vendors focused on solving enterprises' most-pressing application problems have become the top players.

WHITE PAPER

Eight Criteria for Server Load Balancing

Server load balancers are a simple yet highly effective means to scale an application environment while ensuring its availability. Today's solutions should also address application performance and security. Read about the top eight criteria you should consider when choosing a server load balancer and how Citrix NetScaler meets those requirements.

What People Are Saying

0 comments | Add new

See all comments (0) | Add new

White Papers & Webcasts

Death to PST Files
Download Now

Business Process Framework Demo
Learn about Configurable Business Processes and Calculated Fields. Watch Now!

A Green Architectural Strategy That Puts IT in the Black
Levergage green computing across your data center. Read more now.

Manager Experience Demo
Go beyond self-service solutions to perform more effectively. Watch Now.

Quantifying the Business Value of VMware View
Learn why you should invest in a centralized virtual desktop.

WAN Optimization as a Managed Service: More than Network Cost Savings
View this Webcast Now!

Forrester Consulting Mobility Study: Taking Control of Enterprise Mobile Device Diversity
Download Now

Asia-Pacific Enterprise Network Solutions
Learn through this Webcast how your business can achieve reliability, performance and value in hard-to-reach locations within the Asia-Pacific region.

What IT Must Do to Support Employee-Owned BlackBerry, iPhone and Android Mobile Devices
Download Now

Mainsoft Webcast w/ Forrester Research: Drive SharePoint Adoption in Lotus Notes Shops
How can you drive mainstream user adoption of Microsoft SharePoint when your users rely on Lotus Notes?

All White Papers | All Webcasts