IT Leadership program

Chuck Robbins serves as the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Cisco, which has been connecting the world for the past 40 years. With its industry-leading portfolio of solutions, Cisco is now revolutionizing how infrastructure and data connect and protect organizations in the AI era. He was named CEO in July of 2015, before being elected Chair of the Board on December 11, 2017.

For over 25 years at Cisco, Robbins has demonstrated a keen understanding of the rapidly evolving business landscape and the critical role of technology in addressing both customer and global challenges. The company's recent strategic shift has seen a renewed emphasis on software and services, cloud-native applications, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, sustainability, and the advancement of networking – further solidifying Cisco's relevance in the digital era.

Robbins has championed initiatives across the company to enhance employee experience and culture, contributing to Cisco earning the top spot on World’s Best Workplaces, Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, People’s Companies that Care, and various other lists throughout his tenure.

Prior to becoming CEO, Robbins led Cisco’s global sales organization. He also held various leadership roles in regional sales, as well as Cisco’s partner organization, where he was instrumental in building one of the industry’s most robust partner programs.

Outside of his work at Cisco, Robbins is the current Chair of the Business Roundtable; on the Board of Directors for BlackRock; Chairman Emeritus of the US-Japan Business Council; a Member of the International Business Council for the World Economic Forum; a Member of the American Heart Association’s CEO Roundtable; a member of the 2019 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and Vice Chair on the Corporate Fund Board for the Kennedy Center.

Beyond the boardroom, Robbins is also known for his passion for philanthropy and giving back, particularly in STEM, homelessness, and connecting the unconnected – all supporting his belief in the transformative power of technology. He also balances his professional responsibilities with a strong commitment to his personal life, whether spending quality time with his family, pursuing his love of the outdoors by fishing or golfing, or cheering on his Alma Mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a concentration in computer science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus in 2022. He also received an Honorary Doctorate from Georgia Institute of Technology in December of 2023.

Fletcher Previn serves as Cisco's Chief Information Officer and is an executive sponsor for Cisco’s work with various US Government agencies. He and his team drive simplification and business transformation to empower Cisco's 140,000 employees to do their best work while determining the systems, infrastructure, and technical capabilities to create secure global IT at scale.

Fletcher has an established reputation for guiding large organizations through significant shifts. He has extensive experience in driving Agile transformation and modern ways of working, IT modernization, software development, and delivering productivity tools. A systems engineer by training, Fletcher holds Microsoft and Cisco certifications.

Prior to joining Cisco, Fletcher served as Global Chief Information Officer at IBM, where he led a global team of more than 12,000 IT professionals to provide a secure, global IT at scale for IBM employees worldwide.

Ileana M. Rivera is the Vice President of People Technology & IT Business Operations at Cisco. Rivera leads the teams managing HR software, payroll systems, and digital tools that support hiring, onboarding, and performance management for Cisco’s 130,000 global workforce. 

Additionally, she is responsible for managing Business Operations, which encompasses Portfolio Management, PMO, Labor and Software Management, Talent, and Financial Operations for all IT. Her leadership drives efficiency and strategic cohesion across Cisco's IT organization with a team of 340 professionals and a budget of $465 million, which includes all IT software contracts.

Ileana is a recognized expert within the digital workplace experience with more than 16 years in leadership roles at Cisco. She most recently served as Vice President of Cisco Collaboration and Corporate Services, where she was instrumental in leading the development of innovative hybrid work solutions, smart building technology, and collaborative technologies that enhanced employee experiences both at home and in the office. Previously, Rivera held roles as Chief of Staff and Business Operations Lead for the Chief Information Officer, Digital Workplace Experience Leader, and Regional CIO for Latin America.

Before joining Cisco, Rivera worked at TAOS Consulting and held several leadership positions at Stryker Corporation, a leader in the life science/medical device industry.

Rivera is a former board member of the Hispanic IT Executive Council and actively participates in Cisco's Employee Resource Groups, Conexión and Connected Women, which are dedicated to the advancement, mentoring, and promotion of Latinos and women within the organization. She holds an engineering degree from the University of Puerto Rico and a master's degree in information systems from the University of San Francisco. 

Rivera has received numerous accolades, including being named a LatinX honoree by the Silicon Valley Business Journal in 2024 and one of the Top 50 Women Leaders of San Jose by Women We Admire in 2024. Additionally, she was inducted into the HITEC Hall of Fame in October 2019. She is committed to advancing women in the technology industry through her service and mentorship roles, with a particular focus on supporting women and Hispanic IT professionals.

Rivera is fully bilingual in both English and Spanish. 

Sam Rad is a lifelong student of humanity – futurist, anthropologist, and entrepreneur. She is the founder of Radical Next, a meta-media studio creating transformative stories, experiences, and media productions that shape a positive future. Her upcoming book by the same name, Radical Next: Reclaiming Your Humanity in a Post-Human World explores how “radical next ideas” will transform societies in the decades to come. 
 
As an entrepreneur, Sam has founded 4 companies and served across multiple roles across the C-Suite. She holds several patents linking the physical and digital worlds and is considered a pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Immersive Realities, and Applied Cryptography systems. She was amongst the first anthropologists to conduct research living in a virtual world in 2009. 
 
Sam is passionate about empowering humanity to thrive in times of radical change. It is her mission to restore trust and connections between people and themselves, their beliefs, each other, all beings, and our planet. 
 
True to her “Rad” name, Sam is no stranger to risk and has accumulated hundreds of jumps as an ex-competitive skydiver.

As Chief Strategy Officer, Mark Patterson is responsible for driving Cisco’s overall strategic direction including acquisitions, investments, and emerging technology incubation efforts to create new markets and fuel growth for the company. Mark also leads the Office of the Chair and CEO, partnering with the Executive Leadership Team to accelerate innovation, alignment, and growth. His team is responsible for annual and long-range strategic business planning, strategic partnerships, developer relations, and critical cross-functional initiatives.

Previously, Mark held the role of SVP, Chief of Staff to the Chair & CEO, serving as a trusted advisor and driving alignment across Cisco functions through forums focused on strategy, innovation, and leadership. Prior to that, he served as SVP, Global Strategy, Planning and Operations, where he focused on our transformation to deliver recurring revenue, digital selling, and evolving Cisco’s go-to-market strategy. Mark also led sales operations, inclusive of sales and partner training, compensation, customer listening, and Cisco’s Customer Experience Centers around the globe. 

Throughout his 23-plus years at Cisco, Mark has held a number of functional leadership roles across the company ranging from finance, sales strategy, planning, and operations, working with each of Cisco’s primary customer segments spanning enterprise, commercial, public sector, and service provider. He led the original formation of the Americas region, bringing together multiple theatres, countries, and market segments. He was instrumental in the integration of the product and service sales forces. He has served in several executive sponsorship roles for customers and countries, as well as championing multiple diversity efforts.

Before joining Cisco in 2000, Mark led finance and overall business operations for IPMobile. IPMobile was previously named “One of the Hottest Start-Ups in America” by America’s Network Magazine and was later acquired by Cisco. Earlier in his career, Mark focused on serving high-tech and telecommunication clients as manager at a top global public accounting firm.

Mark holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree in accounting from Baylor University in Texas. He serves on the Board of Directors for NPower, a national nonprofit organization that seeks to create pathways to economic prosperity by launching digital careers for military veterans and young adults from underserved communities.

Dev Stahlkopf is Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer at Cisco. She is responsible for driving the company’s legal strategy on key issues including AI, intellectual property, privacy and security, internet governance, cross-border data issues, geopolitical matters, and the company’s public policy priorities.

Prior to joining Cisco in 2021, Dev held several senior roles at Microsoft over the course of 14 years, most recently as Corporate Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary in Microsoft’s Corporate, External & Legal Affairs organization.

Dev practiced law in the Seattle area at Perkins Coie, specializing in employment and labor law, and at Cooley Godward, focusing on corporate and technology transactions. She received her law degree from the University of Arizona, a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy from Duke University, and undergraduate degrees in English and Philosophy from the University of Washington.

Dev is passionate about building the next generation of leaders and driving innovation in the legal profession. Throughout her career, she has been a champion and advocate for the power of pro bono, helping to increase access to justice for underrepresented communities. She works to advance policies that build trust in technology as a board member for the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and currently sits on the Board of Directors of NextEra Energy.

As the Executive Vice President of the Common Hardware Group (CHG) at Cisco, Martin leads the development and delivery of silicon, hardware systems, and optics that are integral to Cisco's switching, routing, optical, cable access, and IoT portfolios.

Martin joined Cisco in March 2024, marking another chapter in his distinguished career and extensive background in networking and AI. Prior to joining Cisco, he served as the Corporate Vice President, leading Microsoft’s Azure for Operators organization. In this role, Martin delivered innovative Azure-based solutions encompassing 5G packet core, voice services, private 5G deployments, and AI-driven operations. Martin joined Microsoft through its acquisition of Metaswitch, a cloud native communications software company, where Martin served as its Chief Executive Officer for five years.

With a diverse and multifaceted background in the industry, Martin has consistently demonstrated his ability to innovate and drive growth. This was evident during his tenure as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cadence Design Systems’ IP Group and prominently throughout his transformative 12-year journey at Broadcom. As Senior Vice President and General Manager, Martin led the Broadcom Network Switch Business. Under his visionary leadership, the division evolved from its early stages to become a billion-dollar global franchise, offering merchant switch silicon for Cloud, Enterprise, Home, Automotive, and Service Providers. Earlier in his career, Martin held key product and engineering management positions at Intel and Case Technology. He's also an accomplished innovator, holding more than 20 networking and communications-related patents.

Beyond work, Martin, a Bay Area local with a thirst for adventure, explores the world. His passion extends to making a difference - he's committed to wildlife conservation, helping underprivileged communities, and championing equal education for children with dyslexia and other learning disabilities.

Join Cisco speakers and your peers for an exclusive ITL reception on Tuesday at 5 p.m.

Don't miss the extended lunches on Monday through Wednesday with different hands-on activities to participate in. See the agenda for specific times and details.

Richard is an experienced global technology executive who specializes in digital strategy, application engineering, and major program delivery though advanced Agile and DevOps practices.  Richard’s focus is to maximize the transformational value of technology by attracting, developing, and retaining great talent.

In his previous role with World Kinect, he served as Senior Vice President of Technology from 2018.  Richard was responsible for simplifying several logistics platforms into a single digital platform to support future acquisitions as well as leading a complete migration to public cloud, closing 22 global data centers in 3 years.

Prior to joining World Kinect, Richard served at Suncorp in Australia as Head of Insurance Technology leading a simplification program that consolidated 13 core insurance platforms to 2, resulting in significant operational efficiencies and improved customer outcomes.

Prior to Suncorp, Richard worked for Disney and Foreign & Colonial in London, leading strategy, transformation, and engineering teams.

Richard holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Queensland University of Technology.  During the pandemic, Richard took up flying and is now a licensed private pilot in pursuit of his instrument rating.

Col. Nicole Malachowski, USAF (Ret.) defies stereotypes. Yes, she was a jet fighter pilot, but if you think you know her based on that, you’d be wrong. A leader, a combat veteran, the first woman pilot on the Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Squadron, a White House Fellow, and an inductee into both the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame– she even has a Star Trek Federation starship named after her, the USS Malachowski (NCC-1619). Nicole’s distinguished 21-year Air Force career exceeded her wildest dreams. But the dream came to an end when a devastating tick-borne illness left her struggling greatly to speak or walk for almost nine months. An indomitable spirit, Nicole fought back against overwhelming odds and prevailed. Drawing on stories from her career and personal life, Nicole inspires audiences to rethink the challenges they face every day. She urges them to go beyond resilience and become resurgent. Nicole’s empowers people with three key beliefs: failure and risk is the price of entry for achieving something great; sometimes you need to yield to overcome; and her personal mantra – “Nobody wants to lead a scripted life.”

Jeremy Foster is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Compute, responsible for driving innovation, market share, and sustainable growth for the company’s multi-billion-dollar compute and SaaS infrastructure operations portfolio.

With two decades of technology and sales leadership in the data center solutions space, Jeremy is laser-focused on helping organizations unify, simplify and secure the IT infrastructure experience everywhere, at scale. His team, made up of the best and brightest talent in the technology industry, builds award-winning platforms that help customers harness the full potential of their infrastructure investments while optimizing for cost, performance, security and sustainability in an AI-driven world.

Prior to his current role, Jeremy managed Cisco’s Cloud Infrastructure and Software Group, where he led the go-to-market strategy for a $9B+ business spanning across cloud, compute and networking software and hardware. He’s a visionary leader and transformation expert known for developing high-performance teams, driving business turnaround, and meeting aggressive growth targets.

Jeremy holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Missouri and a Master of Business Administration from Washington University.