Padmasree Warrior, Chief Technology Officer, Cisco Systems

Padmasree Warrior is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Cisco Systems. As CTO she is responsible for driving the company’s technology innovations and strategy, and works closely with its senior executive team and board of directors to align these efforts with Cisco’s corporate goals. As an evangelist for what is possible, she pushes the organization to stretch beyond current capabilities – not just in technology, but also in strategic partnerships and new business models.

Warrior joined Cisco in March 2008. Prior to that, she was the CTO at Motorola from 2003 to 2007, where she led a team of 26,000 engineers with an annual R&D budget of $3.7 billion. She had direct leadership accountability for Motorola research, global software group, standards, intellectual property and technology policy. Over the course of her 23 year career at Motorola, she served in a broad range of roles, including Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Motorola’s Energy Systems Group, and as Corporate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector.

Warrior’s energetic, approachable and pragmatic leadership style integrates ideas from diverse sources, which include engineers, sociologists, technologists, marketers, business leaders, policy experts and others. Throughout her career, she has earned a reputation as a visionary and change agent. She has the track record for establishing processes that tap a rich diversity of technical, business and entrepreneurial IQ to nurture disruptive and breakthrough innovations, speed development time to market, and improve the way people work, live, play and learn.

Under Warrior’s leadership, Motorola was awarded the 2004 National Medal of Technology by the President of the United States, the first time the company had received this honor. Recently, the Economic Times ranked her as the 11th Most Influential Global person of Indian origin, and the United States Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce recognized her with its prestigious Excellence Award. In 2008, the Wall Street Journal recognized Warrior as one of the “Top 50 Women to Watch”.

Warrior is a strong and vocal advocate for women and minorities in math, science and engineering. In 2007, she was inducted into the Women in Information Technology International Hall of Fame, and received the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago Outstanding Woman of Achievement Award. She has been recognized as a role model by many organizations, including the Girl Scouts Illinois Crossroads Council, Notre Dame Girls High School in Chicago, the South Asian Women Leadership Forum and as a Science Spectrum Trailblazer. In 2001 she was one of six women nationwide selected to receive the "Women Elevating Science and Technology" award from Working Woman magazine.

Warrior is also a committed community leader. She has served on the boards of Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet and Museum of Science and Industry, the Chicago Mayor’s Technology Council. She currently serves on the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR), Cornell University Engineering Council and the advisory council of the Indian Institute of Technology. She previously served on the Texas Governor's Council for Digital Economy, the White House Fellowships Selection Board, and the Technology Advisory Council for the FCC. She was a member of the Advisory Committee for the Computing and Information Science and Engineering of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Warrior is a highly sought after public speaker and has the unique gift of communicating complex technical ideas in a simple and easy to understand manner. She is a passionate advocate and practitioner of innovation.

Warrior holds a M.S. degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University and a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India. In 2007 she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Engineering from New York's Polytechnic University. Warrior has experience in corporate governance serving on the boards of Ferro Corporation (2002-2005) and Corning Inc (2005-2008). A naturalized US citizen, she is married to Mohandas Warrior, President and CEO of Alfalight, Inc. Mohan and Padmasree are the proud parents of a son, Karna who is attending the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora, Illinois.

Contributed by: Latha Warrier