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Brian Tippens

Senior Vice President

Chief Social Impact & Sustainability Officer

Brian Tippens is Senior Vice President and Chief Social Impact & Sustainability Officer at Cisco. In this role, Brian leads the company’s integrated social impact and sustainability work, overseeing crisis response, accessibility, employee community impact, environmental sustainability, inclusion, and the Cisco Foundation to advance Cisco’s purpose to Power an Inclusive Future for All. He helps drive long-term value for Cisco, its stakeholders, and communities around the world by connecting social impact, resilience, and sustainability across the business. Brian is a sought-after speaker and thought leader in global social impact and sustainability. He is a World Economic Forum (WEF) Contributor, a proud member of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC), and has served as a director or advisor to several organizations including Operation HOPE, the Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITEC), Corporate Eco Forum (CEF), the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), the Cisco Foundation Board of Trustees, and the UN Global Compact Network USA, the American chapter of the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative. Brian’s career spans more than 30 years of leadership in the IT industry. Prior to joining Cisco, he served as Chief Sustainability Officer at Hewlett Packard Enterprise and President of the HPE Foundation, where he led the company’s sustainability strategy and social impact initiatives. He previously spent five years as HP/HPE’s Chief Diversity Officer, reporting to the Chief People Officer. He was also a member of HPE’s Political Action Committee (PAC) and AI Ethics boards. Prior to joining HP in 2000, Brian spent three years at Intel Corporation providing legal support for the manufacturing and IT organizations. Brian is a purpose-driven leader committed to advancing opportunity, resilience, and responsible business practices to address the world’s most pressing challenges. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems Management from the University of San Francisco and a Juris Doctor from the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law. Brian and his wife live in Houston and are the parents of three adult children.

Articles

December 12, 2023

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

The Next One Billion Lives

3 min read

Our ability to impact billions of lives lies in our ability to scale. We’re now expanding our areas of focus to impact entire communities through our Social Impact, Networking Academy, and Country Digital Acceleration programs — to address systemic causes of inequity through innovation and create lasting, generational change.

November 21, 2023

PARTNER

Cisco partners drive innovation through Purpose

2 min read

We were excited to introduce a new Partnering for Purpose category in our 6th annual global Partner Innovation Challenge. The new category awards $25K (USD) prizes to partners that best showcase how they are integrating innovation with purpose within four areas of focus.