John Kern — Senior Vice President of Supply Chain Operations at Cisco

Mr. John Kern serves as Senior Vice President of Supply Chain Operations at Cisco Systems, Inc. Mr. Kern leads a global organization responsible for accelerating innovation, enabling profitable growth, and delivering an unrivaled customer experience. His functional accountabilities include new product introduction, sourcing and supplier management, planning, manufacturing, logistics, and quality. Since joining Cisco in 2003, he served various leadership positions in the supply chain. Most recently, he managed Product Operations, Supplier Management and Quality Operations, the key interfaces between the supply chain and Cisco's engineering design team and global supply base. He also managed Global Supplier Management, responsible for enabling Cisco's sustained innovation and supply chain excellence. Prior to Cisco, he served in the semiconductor industry, including seven years at Texas Instruments, in various sales management roles, primarily in the hard disk drive market. In March 2010, he was cited by Supply & Demand Executive in its 10th annual listing of Pros to Know in the supply chain industry, for providing competitive advantage and delivering value to the bottom line. He holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame.