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Wendy Bahr

No Longer with Cisco

Wendy Bahr had responsibility for managing and supporting 60,000+ global partners who represent the company’s primary route to market. Encompassing system integrators, value-added resellers, distributors, services partners, independent software vendors, and technology partners, this global connected partner ecosystem accounts for more than 80 percent of Cisco’s revenue and is a unique differentiator in helping deliver business outcomes for customers and promoting growth for Cisco.

Bahr and her team are responsible for developing strategic initiatives and program innovations that create profitable growth and capacity for Cisco and its partners. With innovative solutions and services based on complementary technologies from Cisco and its partners, Bahr and her team make sure that partners have the right capabilities and skills to serve existing and new market opportunities.

Bahr previously led the Americas Partner Organization for Cisco, which encompassed a team of nearly 600 employees and more than 23,000 partners. In this role, she was responsible for partner enablement, partner profitability, and product and service sales growth with partners in Cisco's largest geographical region (United States, Canada, and Latin America), with annual revenues over $18 billion.

Prior, Bahr led Cisco’s Global and Strategic Partner Organization, where she was responsible for more than $9.5 billion in revenue through the company's largest and most strategic systems integrators, service providers, and ecosystem partners. She was also responsible for Cisco's Global Executive Briefing Centers and Proposals Team, supervising more than 30 executive and customer briefing locations around the world. Bahr also oversaw Cisco's Global Sales Associates Program, which trains new college hires as sales and engineering professionals. Bahr has also been the Senior Vice President of U.S. and Canada Channels, Vice President of U.S. Commercial and Field Channels, Operations Director of Federal Civilian Agencies, and Operations Director of Network Service Providers.

Bahr has spent more than 20 years in sales and technology. Prior to joining Cisco, she was with Verizon for more than 10 years. In her latest role there she was the Director of Enterprise Sales, leading a sales and engineering team focused on Fortune 500 companies and the public sector.

Bahr has received numerous industry accolades and was most recently recognized in the Top Women of the Channel by CRN for 2007–2015, as a 2015 CRN Channel Chief, and as YWCA TWIN Honoree in 2012.

Bahr is a member of Cisco Empowered Women’s Network and a former member of the Gender Diversity Operations Committee. She is a coach and mentor for Cisco's Women Unlimited program, while also personally mentoring dozens of Cisco employees. Her passion for diversity underlies her participation in Cisco's Women's Perspective Sessions, Senior Leadership Diversity Panels, and the Women's Channel Leadership Forum.

Bahr holds a bachelor of business arts degree in communications from Old Dominion University. She has been married to her husband, Eric, for more than 33 years. They reside in Los Gatos, CA.

Articles

June 27, 2018

PARTNER

Fueling Our Partners’ Opportunity

2 min read

Wendy Bahr shares how we're reinventing our go-to-market motions in three key areas.

December 11, 2017

PARTNER

Celebrating Our Most Impactful Assets

1 min read

Celebrating a major victory is a ritual that organizations do all over the world. Whether it’s an innovation breakthrough, a landmark customer win or reaching a significant milestone on a critical project, the opportunity to pause and savor the accomplishment underscores its importance and reinforces the values of hard work, creativity and daring to dream […]

December 7, 2017

PARTNER

Simplifying your Organization’s Digital Transformation with Easy Pay

3 min read

Get access to the latest Cisco innovations through an easy-to-use subscription bundle Explaining the complexity of digital transformation is actually pretty simple: organizations need the latest technology to function at the highest possible level and stay competitive. Sounds easy enough, right? However, addressing digital transformation can quickly become challenging and convoluted when weighing various business […]

June 7, 2017

PARTNER

Relying on Constants to Succeed in a Changing World

2 min read

You know the familiar adage about looking at the past to predict the future, right? That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t always work when you’re dealing with something...

November 2, 2016

PARTNER

And the Award Goes to…

1 min read

One of the most anticipated events at Partner Summit is the annual Global Awards reception. As we come together to recognize our partners for achieving outstanding leadership and innovation, we...

October 26, 2016

PARTNER

Full Speed Ahead into #CiscoPS16

2 min read

Though it has been only eight months since we last gathered, there are so many new developments that will make for a great Partner Summit next week in San Francisco...

September 20, 2016

PARTNER

Cisco and Apple Reset the Mobile Collaboration Experience

1 min read

How do you improve on what’s already an incredible experience? Easy, unleash the innovation prowess of two great companies. Well, it may not have been easy, but that’s exactly what Cisco and Apple did last week with the introduction of iOS 10. This monumental upgrade ushered in a new era of mobile connectivity and collaboration by […]

June 28, 2016

PARTNER

When Our Customers Succeed, We Succeed.

2 min read

Security is a hot topic around here. Our customers want it. Our businesses need it. Our partners can provide it. And none of us can be successful without it.   Recently I was talking with colleagues about how in a relatively short amount of time Cisco has established a market-leading position that was, in part, […]

May 24, 2016

PARTNER

Simplicity, Alignment, and Value Exchange. Together.

2 min read

Shortly after being named the leader of Cisco’s Global Partner Organization, I championed three strategic imperatives that are vital to our partners’ and Cisco’s continued success: Simplicity: removing complexity and making it easier for our partners to work with us Alignment: ensuring our sales and marketing teams’ go-to-market motions are in lock-step Evolving the Value […]