Cisco Systems, Inc. announced that effective May 15, 2024, as part of organizational changes with respect to it?s executive leadership team, the company appointed Gary Steele as President, Go-to-Market. As part of Mr. Steele?s new role, he will assume responsibility for it?s global sales, partner, and marketing operations. In connection with Mr. Steele?s appointment, on May 12, 2024, Jeff Sharritts, the company?s Executive Vice President and Chief Customer and Partner Officer, was informed that he would no longer remain in his role as it?s Executive Vice President and Chief Customer and Partner Officer, effective May 15, 2024.

Mr. Sharritts will remain employed by the company until July 15, 2024. Mr. Steele, 61, joined the company in March 2024 as it?s Executive Vice President and General Manager, Splunk, upon the close of Cisco?s acquisition of Splunk Inc. (Splunk). Prior to the company, Mr. Steele served as Splunk?s President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of Splunk?s board of directors, from 2022 until 2024.

Prior to joining Splunk, Mr. Steele served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of Proofpoint, Inc., from 2002 to 2022, and served as the Chair of the board of directors of Proofpoint from 2018 to 2021. From 1997 to 2002, Mr. Steele served as Chief Executive Officer of Portera Systems Inc. Before Portera, Mr. Steele served as the Vice President and General Manager of the Middleware and Data Warehousing Product Group at Sybase, Inc. Mr. Steele also served in business development, marketing, and engineering roles at Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Company. Since 2018, Mr. Steele has served as a member of the board of directors of Upwork Inc. Mr. Steele previously served as a member of the board of directors of Vonage Holdings Corp., from 2016 to 2021.