Shailesh Shukla

Shailesh Shukla is Vice President and General Manager (VP/GM) of Cisco's Software and Applications Group in the Service Provider Business, with a portfolio of software products enabling monetization and optimization across mobile, wireline and web players. Prior to this role, he served as VP/GM of the Converged Optical and Routing Business Unit, responsible for the core routing and optical business for Cisco. In addition, he was VP/GM of the Mobile, Access, Routing & Services Business Unit, responsible for a broad portfolio of products focused on mobile backhaul, carrier Ethernet, mid-range routing, and L4–L7 services for the service provider, enterprise, and public sector networks.

Prior to joining Cisco, Shukla was part of the management team at two Silicon Valley networking companies: Juniper Networks for three years and Redback Networks for seven years, in a variety of roles including Vice President of Marketing, Strategy and Corporate Development. Previously, he was a partner at Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver-Wyman) in its communications, information, and entertainment industry practice. He has also worked at Booz-Allen and Hamilton in a similar capacity. Before his consulting career, he was at Sprint Corporation (now SprintNextel) as a telecommunications engineer and later as a program manager leading company-wide programs in the areas of intelligent networks and value-added services.

Shukla holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas at Lawrence, and also a master’s degree in business administration (SM) from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.