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Jayshree Ullal Biography
Jayshree Ullal, Senior Vice President of Cisco’s Data Center, Switching and Services Group, is a networking executive veteran with experience in engineering, marketing, and business positions. She has spent more than 15 years with Cisco and is currently responsible for driving the direction and execution of modular Cisco Catalyst 4000/6000 Series switching for campus, the new Nexus Data Center switching series, and the expansion into application networking, virtualization, and integrated security services. She is responsible for about $10 billion in direct and $15 billion of indirect revenue.
Ullal previously was Senior Vice President of the Security Technology group, doubling the Self-Defending Networks portfolio to $2 billion and a market share greater than 40 percent across three years. Previously, as Senior Vice President of the Optical Networking Group, she streamlined the business to profitability. She served as coleader of the Service Provider Business Council for key initiatives in high-end routing. Earlier at Cisco, she grew the Cisco Catalyst switching business from its beginning in 1993 to a $5 billion business in 2000, leading its market. As Vice President and General Manager of the LAN Switching in the Enterprise group, Ullal initiated strategic initiatives including unified communications and IP telephony, content networking, and policy networking, giving Cisco enterprise switching a 70 percent market share and overseeing some 20 mergers and acquisitions for the company in the enterprise sector.
Prior to joining Cisco, Ullal was the Vice President of Marketing at Crescendo Communications, which was Cisco’s first acquisition. There she helped pioneer CDDI 100-Mbps over copper and managed the first standards-based CDDI products and first-generation Ethernet switching. She was Director of Internetworking Products at Ungermann-Bass for four years and also held several engineering and strategy positions in Advanced Micro Devices and Fairchild Semiconductor. Strategic and results-oriented, Ullal’s expertise lies in building strong, talented, and competitive teams focused on achieving goals.
Ullal was named as one of the “50 Most Powerful People” in the 2005 Network World, was nominated one of the 20 powerful “Women to Watch in 2001” by Newsweek, and awarded 2001 Innovator and Influencer Award by Information Week. She was the first woman to be awarded the Entrepreneurial and Leadership award, sponsored by Silicon India, in 1999. She is a prominent spokesperson in many business and networking conferences. She has mentored several high-tech networking start-ups as a board member or advisor. She was an executive sponsor for Cisco’s Women in Technology Action Network and a board member of the Anita Borg Institute.
Ullal holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from San Francisco State University and a master of science degree in engineering management from Santa Clara University.