Pankaj Patel has decided to step down from his current role as Cisco’s executive VP and chief development officer (CDO). He joined Cisco after its acquisition of StrataCom in 1996. During his 20-year tenure at Cisco, he was responsible for driving innovation in the company’s networking and data centre architectures. He was also a part of the next-generation execution leadership team and was responsible for leading the company’s $36.3 billion technology portfolio across a global team of over 26,000 employees. He was previously working as senior VP and general manager for Cisco’s service provider business.
Patel’s exit from Cisco follows a long list of top executives who have resigned from the company lately. Since May 2015, Cisco has witnessed the departure of Gary Moore, president and COO; Rob Lloyd, president, development and sales; and Padmasree Warrior, chief technology and strategy officer. Other high-profile exits include those of Edzard Overbeek, senior VP, Cisco Services; Wim Elfrink, chief globalisation officer; Edison Peres, senior VP, cloud and managed services; and Bruce Klein, senior VP, Worldwide Partner Organization.
