Cisco Snags Ex-Motorola CTO

Padmasree Warrior, the former Motorola chief technology officer who left the company Dec. 3 in the wake of CEO Ed Zander’s ouster, reappeared the next day as Cisco Systems’ new CTO. Warrior will report to John Chambers, Cisco’s chairman and CEO.

Warrior left Motorola just three days after Motorola announced Nov. 30 that CEO Ed Zander is stepping down with Ed Brown taking over the direction of the struggling cell phone maker on Jan. 1.

“Padmasree’s new role as CTO will help to develop and promote Cisco’s future technology leadership,” Chambers said in a statement. “Over her distinguished career, Padmasree has demonstrated the key characteristics we prize at Cisco, including an unwavering commitment to customer success and innovation.”

Warrior, 47, left Motorola after 23 years with the company. Appointed CTO in 2003, Warrior held numerous positions, including corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola’s energy systems group and corporate vice president and chief technology officer for the Semiconductor Products Sector.

“Cisco’s customer centric culture and purposeful commitment to innovation are integral parts of my leadership portfolio,” Warrior said in a statement.

In her first Cisco blog entry, Warrior said Cisco is driving new paradigms in communications and information technology.

“What are some of the characteristics of solutions driving the next wave of Internet evolution?” she wrote. “We already see many precursors for this such as 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’s ultimate fate at Motorola may have been tied to Zander, who joined the company in 2004. Shortly after Zander took over, Motorola introduced the highly popular RAZR phone, which was under Warrior’s domain. However, since then, RAZR sales have slowed in the face of fierce competition and Motorola has failed to introduce to another hit product.

Under Zander, Motorola fell to third in worldwide handset sales behind market leaders Nokia and Samsung.

“I am eager to tackle the challenges in the continued development and implementation of Cisco’s vision and technology strategy,” Warrior wrote on the Cisco blog. “As we get to know each other, you will also see me as a tireless champion for innovation and inclusion. I enjoy envisioning and creating the future, and leveraging technology leadership for business growth.”

Check out eWEEK.com’s Infrastructure Center for the latest news, views and analysis on servers, switches and networking protocols for the enterprise and small businesses.