Lurking in Cisco’s boardroom at the Global Editor’s Conference yesterday was a rather familiar face.
Former CEO John Chambers popped into a tour of the premises, introducing himself as a "corporate overhead"!
Read CBR’s UK exclusive interview from June this year.
As the discussion flowed, one of the assembled crowd to ask if he could be following in the footsteps of former HP boss Carly Fiorina, as a tech CEO who goes on to make a bid for the White House.
The suggestion is not so outlandish. Chambers is well known for speaking out on political issues. He said that he had been asked the same question "about 300 times this week", and while it’s clearly not on the agenda now, he did not dismiss the notion outright for the future.
Chambers described himself as "part of a dying breed – a moderate Republican". He was part of the tech delegation that met with China’s President Xi the other day, something he was very enthusiastic about.
As head of one the world’s biggest IT firms, Chambers has encouraged government to get more tech savvy.
With Ex-HP CEO Carly Fiorina running for the Republican ticket, and currently second in popularity behind Donald Trump, might we expect to see more hihg profile Silicon Valley leaders move into politics.
At the recent Salesforce Dreamforce some attendees were sporting badges which suggestd they’d vote for CEO Marc Benioff, They read: Benioff for 2020.
