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Carrie Palin

SVP and Chief Marketing Officer

Cisco Systems, Inc.

Carrie Palin is the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Cisco. As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, she leads the company’s multi-faceted marketing practice to fuel growth and impact in the market. Palin and her team are responsible for increasing demand for Cisco products and solutions while evolving the company’s iconic and trusted brand. Her responsibilities include regional field, digital, and partner marketing, in addition to corporate brand strategy, sponsorships, and global events. Under her leadership, Cisco was recognized by Interbrand as the number one pure B2B brand globally. She also spearheaded a globally recognized transformation of Cisco.com, completely reimagining the digital experience for Cisco's customers. Before joining Cisco, Palin gained extensive experience leading enterprise marketing organizations in the technology sector. Most recently, she served as CMO of Splunk where she played a pivotal role in revamping the brand in 2019. Prior to Splunk, Carrie served as CMO at SendGrid (acquired by Twilio), and as the first CMO at Box. She was also Vice President of Marketing for IBM’s Cloud Data Services/Analytics Division. Carrie began her career at Dell and spent more than 16 years driving global go-to-market strategy and leading various marketing organizations across the data center portfolio. Carrie is a strong advocate for Women in Technology and is currently an executive sponsor of Cisco’s North America chapter of Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE). Her leadership and industry impact have earned her several accolades, including her recent recognition on the Forbes World's Most Influential CMOs list in 2023 and 2024. Originally from Austin, Texas, Carrie holds a B.S. from Texas Christian University and serves on the Board of Directors of NetApp and DemandScience. She and her husband Jesse are the proud parents of two children.

Articles

September 22, 2025

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Cisco Bets on Austin: Celebrating Our New Downtown Office

3 min read

Today marks a momentous milestone for Cisco as we open the doors to our brand-new office in downtown Austin. A Cisco Showcase, this office features the complete portfolio of Cisco’s future-proofed workplace technologies with a variety of real-time use cases.