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Rowan Trollope

Senior Vice President and General Manager

IoT and Collaboration Technology Group

Rowan Trollope is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco’s Internet of Things (IoT) and Collaboration Technology Group. Trollope joined Cisco in 2012 to lead a dramatic leap forward in the way people connect and collaborate at work. Since then, he has reinvented Cisco’s collaboration business and made design, simplicity, and exponential improvement the guiding principles of product development. Most recently, Trollope was appointed to also lead Cisco’s IoT efforts as the company focuses on helping its customers and partners create value in a highly connected, digital world. In this role, he leads a worldwide organization responsible for technology solutions across IoT market segments, including manufacturing, industrial, transportation, public sector, and many others.

Under Trollope’s leadership, the Collaboration Technology Group has refreshed the entire collaboration technology portfolio, simplifying the product line and winning eight Red Dot awards for outstanding product design. To capitalize on mobile and cloud opportunities, Trollope also built a next-generation cloud platform and its first application, the business messaging service Cisco Spark. As a result, Collaboration has taken a huge step forward to lead Cisco’s large businesses in growth, at 14 percent in its most recent quarter.

Prior to joining Cisco, Trollope led Symantec’s sales, marketing, and product development teams as the Group President, responsible for its cloud security business and the SMB segment. He was responsible for growing the company’s software-as-a-service strategy and expanding cloud-based delivery and customer support models. Prior to that, Trollope led product development and marketing for the Norton consumer business and previously Symantec’s high-end Enterprise Security division.

Trollope holds a variety of patents in computer security and operating systems.

Rowan Trollope can also be followed on Cisco's The Network.

Articles

October 21, 2015

COLLABORATION

Cloud Reimagined

1 min read

As we gear up for our biggest collaboration event of the year, Collaboration Summit, I thought it would be a great opportunity to kick off a blog series leading up to the announcements we’ll be making there this December about the evolution of our Collaboration Cloud Platform. At last year’s summit, we announced Project Squared, […]

August 26, 2015

COLLABORATION

What Future Do You See?

2 min read

The future fascinates me. I grew up reading Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Kurt Vonnegut. And watching every sci-fi movie that came out. Robots, aliens, utopia, dystopia – I loved it all. Today, imagining what the future looks like is a big part of my job. In June, I got to participate in a futurist […]

July 9, 2015

COLLABORATION

Cisco Collaboration at Tech on Deck

1 min read

This week I had a great opportunity to participate in the first ever Tech on Deck with Robert Scoble and Scott Jordan. Tech on Deck is being broadcast from SCOTTeVEST’s headquarters in Ketchum, Idaho, which happens to be a mile away from Sun Valley where the annual Allen & Co. Conference is taking place. This […]

June 23, 2015

COLLABORATION

How Cisco Scored a Spot on TWiST

1 min read

If you don’t know about the podcast series, This Week in Startups (TWiST), hosted by my friend Jason Calacanis, it’s worth checking out. Jason is a legendary investor and media mogul who has his fingers in every part of the tech industry. Each week, he brings CEOs, business founders, venture capitalists, angel investors, and tech […]

March 31, 2015

COLLABORATION

Mastering Design, One Red Dot at a Time

2 min read

One of my favorite designers, John Maeda, believes that the most successful tech companies of the future will really be design companies. When John’s somewhat bold prediction is put in the context of this quote from Steve Jobs, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works” – […]

March 17, 2015

COLLABORATION

Spark a Revolution

2 min read

Today’s companies must evolve or face extinction. If they stand still, they’ll die. Pretty dramatic, I know, but that’s the reality. Forty percent of Fortune 500 companies will no longer be around in 10 years[1]. Companies in every industry know they need to move faster and innovate quickly to survive. But transforming traditional businesses into […]

February 24, 2015

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Jimmy Kimmel Live Reimagines the Fan Experience with Cisco

2 min read

When I watched the Grammy’s last month, I wasn’t only rooting for my favorite artists from my couch – I had Twitter open, engaging with my friends, following interesting hash-tags, and engaging in the event in a way that five years ago wasn’t even an option. Industry people call this the 2nd screen and it’s […]

December 8, 2014

COLLABORATION

Privacy v. Productivity: The CIOs Role in Shaping Future of Work Policies

2 min read

According to Cisco’s 2014 Connected World Technology Report, the future of work will be more flexible and collaborative than ever before. In this two-part blog series, Rowan Trollope, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco’s Collaboration Technology Group, explores how the IT and business landscape is changing based on this new research and how […]

November 17, 2014

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

How I Manage a $4B Business from my Phone

2 min read

I don’t use my laptop to run my business. It’s not that I don’t like my laptop. It’s just that I really love using my mobile device — for everything. My mobile is incredibly convenient, small, and functional. Let’s face it: we’re lucky to be in the era of the smartphone when one device can […]

November 5, 2014

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

The Future of Work & Collaboration

3 min read

According to Cisco’s Connected World Technology Report, the future of work will be more flexible and collaborative than ever before. In this two-part blog series, Rowan Trollope, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco’s Collaboration Technology Group, explores how the IT and business landscape is changing based on this new research and how organizations […]

October 6, 2014

COLLABORATION

Reinventing Conferencing

2 min read

What kind of a world will you live in three years from now? How about five? Will your personal robot pour you a drink after your self-driving car delivers you home? That’s where we’re headed, and it’s a pretty quick trip: self-driving cars are already on public roads and you’ll soon be able to buy […]

February 18, 2013

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

What Really Matters in Collaboration

On the eve of Microsoft’s first Lync User Conference, I think it’s a great time to start a frank and direct conversation about what’s changed in collaboration and, because of those changes, what’s really important for IT decision makers to consider as they evaluate collaboration vendors and solutions. This conversation, which I’m confident will spark […]