Tony Bates

Tony Bates is Senior Vice President of Cisco's Service Provider Technology Group (SPTG). He is a member of Chairman and CEO John Chambers' senior staff, and contributes to Cisco's overall strategy and direction.

Bates is responsible for the overall strategy, engineering direction and execution, and marketing for SPTG. He leads a team of approximately 4,000+ employees and a technology group that generates over $5B in annual revenues.

The SPTG is comprised of the following: Core Routing Business Unit (BU); Edge Routing BU; Mid-range Routing BU; Optical Transport BU/Cable Modem Transmission Systems BU, Mobility Signaling Control BU, Service Routing Group, Service Provider Routing Software Group, Central Engineering, and Architectures & Systems Development.

Most recently, Bates was the SVP / GM of the Service Provider Routing Technology Group. Prior to that role, Bates was the Vice President and General Manager of Cisco's high-end router business. During his tenure, he was responsible for the strategy and development of Cisco's flagship CRS-1 high end router, GSR and Multi- Service WAN (MGX) product lines.

Since first joining Cisco in 1996, Bates has held a number of other positions, most notably Director of Marketing for the Optical Internetworking business unit; Manager of Engineering for Internet POP Systems, and Technical Leader in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer.

Prior to Cisco, Bates spearheaded the backbone-engineering strategy for Internet MCI (MCI's national IP backbone).

Bates has more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications and Internet industries. He has published 12 IETF RFCs in the areas of Internet Routing and Operations, and holds 8 patents in the area of layer 2 and layer 3 innovations.

Bates is a current Member of the Board of LoveFilm International and Bubble Motion, Inc. He is a former Member of the Board of YouTube, Inc.