Russell Smith

Russell Smith is Sr. Director of the Americas Digital Impact Office at Cisco, leading the Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) and Networking Academy organizations. Rusty engages with leaders to help solve their top challenges and drive their digital agendas. From smart cities to country digitization, Rusty believes in the imperative to drive an inclusive future for all. Whether supporting the hybrid workforce and workplace, making education and training more accessible, or modernizing infrastructure to improve sustainability, Rusty and the team develop leading-edge strategies with secure, comprehensive solutions to help Cisco's customers. Rusty's 25+ year career in the industry includes leading high-performing service providers and Cisco VAR organizations, and he has extensive experience developing sales models, leading organizational transformations, and driving large-scale and incremental business growth. Before his current role, he led the Americas Sustainability market development teams and established Cisco's global public funding capture program in 32 countries outside the US.