Ms Warrior’s departure from Motorola was announced earlier this week and followed the departure of its chief executive Ed Zander. She served with Motorola for 23 years and was the chief technology officer since 2003.

Mr Zander was replaced by chief operating officer Greg Brown, while Ms Warrior will be replaced by Rich Nottenburg, the company’s current strategy chief.

It was my decision to leave Motorola. It’s independent of what’s happening at Motorola or any of the organizational changes that they are making, said Ms Warrior. The reason I chose Cisco is, I believe it is a great company, with a tremendous track record of catching the market transitions at the right time.

Cisco’s last quarterly results showed rise in profit by 37% year-on-year. The company posted strong growth due to the increasing demand from telecommunication service providers and corporate customers, who need to upgrade their networks in response to growing internet traffic. It has also been expanding its investment in India, and is set to employ over 10,000 people in the country by 2010.

Motorola posted a decrease of 94% in its third-quarter profits and has been losing market share to rivals such as Nokia and Samsung.

Cisco said that Ms Warrior will be reporting to chief executive John Chambers and will work closely with chief development officer Charles Giancarlo, who was the company’s former chief technology officer. The chief technology officer role had been open since Mr Giancarlo’s promotion in July 2005.

Ms Warrior holds chemical engineering degree from Cornell University.

Source: ComputerWire daily updates