Mumbai: Padmasree Warrior, an Indian-American, has been appointed the new chief technology officer (CTO) of networking equipment major Cisco Systems.

She will assume the post, which has been left vacant after the company's promoter and former CTO Charles Giancarlo quit the post in July to become chief development officer.
 
"I am excited at the opportunity to join a world class company poised to lead the next era of internet evolution," Warrior, 47, said in a statement.

She comes from Motorola where she served as executive vice president and chief technology officer and is best known for her work in seamless mobility.

She holds an MS degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University and a BS in chemical engineering from IIT Delhi.

In 2007 she was awarded Doctor of Engineering, Honoris Causa from New York's Polytechnic University.

"I look forward to enabling future growth together with Cisco's top talent worldwide. Cisco's customer centric culture and purposeful commitment to innovation are integral parts of my leadership portfolio," she said.

"It is an exciting time to join Cisco, a company whose leadership legacy defines the network in many ways. Today, it is a company driving many new paradigms in communications and information technology. In the future, it will be a company poised to lead the industry to the next phase of internet. The next generation of web will be marked by collaboration, Web 2.0 and always on demand. Cisco has been at the forefront of this shift, where the network becomes the platform to deliver the next wave of applications and services." Warrior wrote in her personal blog at Cisco.

Once ranked as the 11th most influential global Indian and called a "rising star" by Fortune magazine, Warrior was the highest-ranking female executive in Motorola's near eighty-year history, achieving the rank of corporate vice president and CTO for the hardware giant. Warrior was acknowledged for the introduction of a blog, 'Innovate', on which the Motorola's 25,000 engineers were encouraged to share ideas and information.

"The future belongs to the genius of the collaborative innovator. In the past we had this notion of engineers working by themselves in isolation and trying to come up with things. And that whole paradigm is changing," Warrior said.

"Padmasree's new role will help to develop and promote Cisco's future technology leadership. She is a technology visionary, an excellent leader with a strong industry voice and business acumen, and we are thrilled to welcome her to our leadership team," Cisco chairman and CEO, John Chambers, said in a statement.

As CTO, Ms Warrior will play a key leadership role in the continued development and communication of Cisco's technology strategy and vision.

Cisco is the global leader in networking with a deep heritage in technology.