Karen Walker — Senior VP & Chief Marketing Officer at Cisco

Executive Bio

Ms. Karen Walker has been the Chief Marketing Officer of Cisco Systems, Inc. since May 2015 and as its Senior Vice President since May 2015. Ms. Walker leads the global Go To Market Organization that manages the outbound marketing of Cisco products and solutions, while accelerating sales through Cisco's sales force and partners. Her team takes an integrated marketing approach from brand to demand, using digital and social media to engage customers and partners on their purchase journey. She is accountable for a global revenue marketing goal. Ms. Walker served as Senior Vice President of Marketing at Cisco Systems, Inc. since February 2013. Ms. Walker served as Vice President of Services Marketing at Cisco Systems, Inc. from November 2008 to January 2012 and its Senior Vice President of Segment, Services and Partner Marketing from February 2012 to January 2013. She served as Senior Vice President of Go To Market at Cisco Systems, Inc. from February 2013 to May 2015. Since joining Cisco, she has championed marketing's role as an accountable business function aligning closely with sales teams and a vital resource to partners. Ms. Walker served as Senior Vice President of Segment, Services and Partner Marketing, leading a global team to engage customers in addressing their technology challenges with Cisco product and services solutions. Her 20-plus years in the IT industry have included senior field and marketing leadership roles in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region. She joined Cisco from Hewlett-Packard, where she served business and consumer leadership positions including Vice President of Alliances and Marketing for HP Services and Vice President of Strategy and Marketing for both the Consumer Digital Entertainment and Personal Systems groups. Ms. Walker is a recognized industry authority on both technology and marketing topics. She serves as a Board member of the I.T. Services Marketing Association. Ms. Walker serves as a Director of Association of National Advertisers Inc. She is a member of the CMO Council North America Advisory Board, the Marketers that Matter Council, Advancing Executive Women (AWE) in Silicon Valley and CRN's 2013 Women of the Channel. Ms. Walker has lectured on business thought leadership at UC Berkeley, Haas Business School. She holds a bachelor of science degree with joint honors in chemistry and business studies from Loughborough University in England.

Senior VP & Chief Marketing Officer Impact on Marketing Department's Culture

Karen Walker holds the highest position within the Marketing department at Cisco — Senior VP & Chief Marketing Officer, and therefore has influence on the culture of the Marketing department. The average employee described daily life within the Marketing department as a Extremely fast paced and challenging 8 hour day, stating that they are happy with their work life balance. Employees within Cisco's Marketing department are invested in Cisco's goals, and feel as though there is not space for career growth.

Answer	Percent
Yes	78%
No	22%

Are you challenged at work?

Answer	Percent
Yes	80%
No	20%

Are your company's goals clear, and are you invested in them?

Answer	Percent
Yes	83%
No	17%

Are you satisfied with your work/life balance?

Answer	Percent
Positive	86%
Negative	14%

Is your work environment positive or negative?

Answer	Percent
Great	0%
Good	25%
Average	25%
Poor	50%
Horrible	0%

How would you rate the value & quality of meetings at your company?

Answer	Percent
Yes	25%
No	75%

Does your current company provide you meaningful opportunities for career advancement?

Executive Team Culture Ratings from Cisco Employees

TOP

10%

Cisco's Executive Team scores in the Top 10%
of similar sized companies on Comparably

See Detailed Executive Team Ratings

Do you approve of the job your executive team is doing at your company?

73% Yes

Who ranks the Executive Team the highest?

Ethnicity - Native American 93/100

Ethnicity - African American/Black 89/100

Department - Finance 83/100

Who ranks the Executive Team the lowest?

Gender - Non-Binary 55/100

Department - Product 67/100

Tenure - Over 10 Years 68/100

Cisco's Executive Team at a Glance

Based on 756 ratings, Cisco's employees are very satisfied with their Executive Team and give them an “A” or 77/100. On average, Men provided higher ratings for their Executive Team compared to Women. Also, the Finance department thinks more highly of the Executive Team relative to the Product department.

Cisco's Executive Team ranks in the Top 30% of other companies in San Francisco and Top 10% of other companies on Comparably that also have 10,000+ Employees.

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