Cisco is known for many things. Leading with innovation across a huge portfolio for more than 40 years. A portfolio that helps our customers around the world to connect in a secure way – and the portfolio is getting even better! Being a partner-first company. Our deep commitment to customer value. I could go on…
Today, I want to focus on an area we don’t talk about too often: Cisco’s world-class talent. The breadth and depth of our global talent made it incredibly easy for me to reshape my Sales Leadership team with amazing leaders who have been with Cisco a long time and bring critical global perspective, experience across different customer segments and outstanding technical expertise to their work. It’s moments like today where our long-term commitment and investment in our people – and their dedication to Cisco and our customers – is paying off. What makes me feel even more confident is that during the search process I realized there is even more talent under the hood, which fills my optimism for the future.
Here’s a summary of what I announced today. Let’s start with the role I most recently had the privilege of holding at Cisco: leading our business in EMEA.
The unique market and diversity of customer needs across EMEA are incredibly important to Cisco, including, for example, our commitment to empowering Europe’s digital future. And we are honored by the trust and partnership of so many organizations across EMEA, which is why I am excited to announce Gordon Thomson as the new leader of this important region. Since joining Cisco in 1997, Gordon has held numerous EMEA and global leadership roles, consistently driving growth and delivering next-gen networking and cloud solutions with an intense focus on our customers. I trust his industry expertise, strategic vision, and collaborative leadership to continue advancing success for our customers, partners, and stakeholders in his expanded role.
Today we also announced that Patrick Morrissey will become the next leader of our Americas Sales team. Patrick has transformed Cisco’s Specialists organization – driving rigorous execution and alignment around critical growth opportunities in Networking, Security, Cloud and AI, and Collaboration. As Executive Sponsor of our NVIDIA partnership, Patrick’s leadership has strengthened our global Go-to-Market strategy in Security and AI. With a majority of his 25-year Cisco career spent supporting key Enterprise, Webscale, and Service Provider relationships in the Americas, this role marks a homecoming for Patrick.
With Patrick taking on the Americas, we also announced today that Dave West will transition from his role leading our Asia Pacific, Japan, and Greater China (APJC) team to taking the helm of our Global Specialists. A 25-year Cisco veteran who brings great technical and business acumen to the role, Dave has been instrumental in driving Cisco’s growth and innovation across APJC, focusing on delivering advanced solutions that enable digital transformation for customers and partners. His expertise on our portfolio, combined with his global view and field sales experience make him the perfect leader for driving the future of our sales Specialists.
As Dave transitions to lead Cisco’s Global Specialists team, Ben Dawson will succeed him in leading our APJC business. Previously leading our ANZ business, Ben has demonstrated transformative leadership, including guiding Cisco Australia to be recognized as the #1 Best Place to Work for five consecutive years. His experience also includes six years in Silicon Valley, where he led Cisco’s webscale business and built strong relationships with top web and cloud companies. Ben’s focus on partnerships, customer value, and innovation has strengthened trust in Cisco and helped organizations thrive in a rapidly evolving digital world.
The search process for these leaders has proven to me yet again that we have world-class talent everywhere at Cisco. I’m so impressed by all the talent! No matter how far back in our four decades you go, Cisco’s Sales Leadership embodies a powerful combination of global perspective, customer focus and deep technical expertise, enabling the company to consistently deliver exceptional value to our customers. With leaders who bring decades of experience in driving innovation, navigating diverse markets with a nuanced understanding of regional dynamics, and addressing complex challenges with rigorous technical acumen, we have fought hard to earn our unique position to meet the evolving needs of businesses worldwide, anticipate industry trends, and develop cutting-edge solutions.
I’m very happy to say the sales leaders I announced today bring all of it (and more!) to the table. I know I speak for our entire team when I say we cannot wait to show you how much more value we can help our customers around the world unlock and unleash through their trust and investment in Cisco. So let’s get started!
