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Karen Walker

Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

Karen Walker is the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Cisco, overseeing Global Marketing. Walker and her team are responsible for building and strengthening Cisco's brand, supporting growth strategies, cultivating opportunities in new and existing markets, and increasing demand for Cisco's solutions globally.

Since joining Cisco, Walker has championed marketing's role as an accountable business function, aligning closely with sales teams, engineering teams, and Cisco partners. Karen has made strategic investments to further Marketing's vision to become the leader in real-time, personalized marketing. Most notably, she has invested in the newest marketing technologies to build a multi-award-winning techstack (Markie 2017 and 2018, Stackie 2017, and more), creating a world-class digital marketing infrastructure optimizing for the best experience for our customers, sellers, and partners. Walker has also led as Cisco's brand value increased 16% to $34.6B dollars, ranking #15 on Interbrand's Best Global Brands list.

Leading up to her promotion to CMO, Walker excelled in her various roles at Cisco, starting as the Global VP of Services Marketing, growing to take on Segments and Partners, and then finally becoming SVP of Go-to-market.

Walker's 20-plus years in the IT industry have included senior field and marketing leadership roles in Europe, North America, and the Asia Pacific region. She joined Cisco from Hewlett-Packard, where she held business and consumer leadership positions including VP Marketing for HP Services, Executive Director of Consumer Digital Entertainment and VP Personal Systems groups.

Walker is a recognized industry authority on both technology and marketing topics, frequently participating on panels and giving keynotes around the world. For three years in a row she has been recognized by Forbes as one of the world's Most Influential CMOs, currently ranked in the Top 10 globally. She is a member of the Board of the Association of National Advertisers and is a strong supporter of the #SeeHer movement – an effort led by the ANA to accurately portray women and girls in the media by 2020. Walker also sponsors multiple initiatives to accelerate female leadership within Cisco and has lectured on business thought leadership at multiple universities.

Walker holds a Bachelor of Science degree with joint Honors in Chemistry and Business Studies from Loughborough University in England and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration from the University of Sunderland in 2018.

Articles

August 25, 2017

13

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

The Network. Intuitive. The Next Chapter with Peter Dinklage

1 min read

Two months ago, Cisco unveiled our vision for the new era of networking, The Network. Intuitive. Our next chapter helps businesses understand the game-changing nature of the new network.

June 26, 2017

3

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Introducing The Network. Intuitive.

2 min read

Last week, Cisco ushered in a new era of networking with intent-based technologies that constantly learn, adapt, and protect. This game-changer for businesses requires a marketing campaign that is equally game-changing.

December 12, 2016

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

There’s Never Been a Better Time…to Tell Cisco’s Story

1 min read

Technology is changing everything. It’s solving some of the world’s greatest challenges and transforming our customers’ businesses in new and unprecedented ways. Our job is to help our customers navigate this complexity—so there’s never been a better time to tell the Cisco story clearly and concisely. That’s why I’m so excited to announce that Oliver […]

September 6, 2016

12

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Cisco’s Digital Network Shines at Rio 2016

2 min read

Connecting the unconnected: An overview of our work in the Porto Maravilha region of Rio, where free public Wi-Fi helps foster real-world ideas, action and digital transformation.

May 3, 2016

56

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

There’s Never Been A Better Time

1 min read

Discover real stories from our customers and partners about how our technology is transforming entire industries, countries, and even saving lives.

October 1, 2015

15

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

How the Internet of Everything is changing lives

2 min read

The Internet of Everything (IoE) is already helping to unlock new possibilities for health care. What’s coming next is a new kind of connected medicine with the potential to save lives. A networked connection of people, process, data, and things is transforming healthcare through developments like electronic health records that are customized and secured for […]

May 12, 2015

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

#DigitalTransformation Fueling the Need for Workforce Transformation

3 min read

Digital disruption is transforming virtually every role in every industry. Every day I see how the proliferation of online, mobile, and social interactions has created the need for completely new...

July 15, 2014

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Smart Companies Go Beyond Social Listening

1 min read

Recently Sprinklr asked me how companies today are in trouble if they’re not keeping up with social disruption. Which led me to consider:  What makes a company smart when it comes to being social? Answer:  Smart companies recognize three things… Customers’ social expectations continue to rise. More and more consumers and B2B buyers are contacting […]

February 17, 2014

PARTNER

Marketing Insights on Revenue Generation, Buying Patterns, and the Role of Social

3 min read

Cisco Senior Vice President Karen Walker shares marketing insights with Crimson Marketing CEO Glenn Gow.

October 22, 2013

1

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

#ExecInsights: IoE, Healthcare, and Parking Among Hot Topics at Gartner Symposium

2 min read

So, it turns out the most tweeted topic from my recent presentation at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo was about how much of their lives Parisian motorists spend searching for parking (let’s just say it’s more than a year!).   As I told the audience in Orlando, that stress-ridden search is one of countless challenges we can tackle […]

October 3, 2013

1

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Gartner ITxpo: The Internet of Everything Drives Business Innovation

1 min read

In a few days, I have the opportunity to discuss how the Internet of Everything (IoE) is opening up new levels of innovation, business models, and economic opportunity to CIOs and IT leaders at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2013. It’s no small task explaining the vast possibilities the Internet of Everything can offer, but here’s a […]