Mark Patterson

Mark Patterson, SVP, is the Chief of Staff to the Office of the Chair and CEO. As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, Mark leads business planning and operations across the company, in support of Cisco’s own digital transformation and that of our customers and partners. On behalf of the CEO, Mark drives alignment across Cisco executives and their functions through forums focused on strategy, innovation and leadership. He leads the incubation and execution of critical company sponsored cross-functional initiatives, as well as strategic partnership and advisory guidance to the CEO agenda. Previously, Mark held the role of SVP, Global Strategy, Planning, and Operations, where his mission was simplification to drive growth, transformation, and culture, with a focus on customers and our sales force. He led the evolution of our sales and go to market model. His role focused on our transformation to deliver recurring revenue, strategic direction for digital selling, implementation for go-to-market initiatives, and the long-range strategic business plan. Mark also led sales operations, inclusive of sales and partner training, sales compensation, customer listening, Cisco’s Customer Experience Centers around the globe, and Cisco’s cloud-based demo platform, “dCloud”. Since joining Cisco in 2000, Mark has held a number of functional leadership roles across the company ranging from finance, sales strategy, planning, and operations, working with each of Cisco’s primary customer segments spanning enterprise, commercial, public sector, and service provider. He led the original formation of the Americas region, bringing together multiple theatres, countries, and market segments, while building and implementing a plan to increase productivity by 17 percent. He was instrumental in the integration of the product and services sales forces. He has served in several executive sponsorship roles for customers and countries, as well as championing multiple diversity efforts. Prior to joining Cisco, Mark led finance and overall business operations for IPMobile. IPMobile was previously named “One of the Hottest Start-Ups in America” by America’s Network Magazine and was later acquired by Cisco. Earlier in his career, Mark focused on serving high-tech and telecommunications clients as manager at a large-scale public accounting firm. Mark is a member of the board for the 49ers Foundation, whose goal is to harness football to educate youth in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their focus is on using STEAM education and youth football programs to empower local children, and they partner with nonprofits to make an impact on the overall community. He is also a member of the board for NPower, whose mission is to create pathways to economic prosperity by launching digital careers for military veterans and young adults from underserved communities. Mark participates in the Business Executives for National Security (BENS) organization. This nonpartisan, nonprofit organization provides a channel through which senior American business leaders volunteer their expertise to help national security agencies become more efficient and effective. Mark holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree in accounting from Baylor University in Texas.