Cisco names first COO as company reinvents itself

22.02.2011
Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) has named Gary Moore as its first COO, formally giving CEO John Chambers a sidekick to help transition the switching and routing king into new markets in the and beyond.

A 10-year Cisco veteran, Moore has been running the $8 billion-a-year Cisco Services business as an executive vice president and will now oversee engineering, marketing, operations and services organizations.

Moore will report to Chambers though isn't necessarily seen as a successor to the CEO, who has been in that role since 1995.

Q&A:

Chambers said: "I have tremendous confidence in Gary's ability to align Cisco's world-class innovation engine with industry-leading operational practices to drive and extend the next-generation of Cisco's market leadership."

Such skills will be crucial to Cisco's success going forward as it looks to own new markets beyond its flagship switching and routing businesses, including data center products such as servers and consumer offerings including umi personal telepresence systems. For the first time in company history, revenue in Cisco's core routing and switching markets has been and associated services in data center, , video, collaboration and mobility.