IT giant Cisco Systems Inc. on Monday, announced plenty of changes among its executive that includes the exit of Kelly Ahuja, a company veteran who has been managing its sales to communications-service providers.
According to reports, another senior executive Yvette Kanouff, who joined Cisco in 2014, will undertake Mr. Ahuja’s former responsibilities as part of an expanded service-provider organization.
Then Zorawar Biri Singh, was also appointed as senior vice president who joined the company last year, to manage a cloud services and platforms division. He previously performed his duties as chief technology officer for platforms and solutions.
Company’s CEO Chuck Robbins who took over the position from John Chambers has been vowing to change the Cisco’s management team to cope with the new market pressures.
The networking giant recently faced difficulties in dealing with service providers who basically are the major customers of switching and routing gear. Cisco reportedly has also lost some market stake in routers purchased by service providers.
In the meantime, some of these major customers in that industry are embracing new software offerings that require less-specialized gear.
Mr. Ahuja’s departure was a big surprise, despite the “mixed” results in selling to service providers recently, said Ray Mota, managing director of ACG Research. “That is a tough loss for Cisco,” he said.
In addition to that another top executive Pankaj Patel, who has been managing product development, has announced plans to exit the company later this year. He will keep on managing the networking, market segments and solutions in the meantime, Company said.
Another change at the biggest maker of networking equipment was Ms. Kanouf, who was appointed by the Cisco from Cablevision Systems Corp. last September, had been nominated as a senior vice president and general manager for cloud solutions. She will report to Mr. Patel in her new position, Cisco said.
Then Liz Centoni was promoted to senior vice president and given charge to manage Cisco’s computing systems product group. She was previously working as a vice president and chief of staff for engineering.
