Padmasree Warrior Indian Woman at the top of Silicon Valley
Cisco Systems' Padmasree Warrior: An Indian-origin woman at the top in Silicon Valley
Finding women at the top in Silicon Valley — steeped in a culture dominated by men — is a rarity. And to find an Indian-origin woman at that would seem near impossible.
Padmasree Warrior, chief technology & strategy officer at Cisco Systems, is a notable exception. Warrior became CTO and executive veep at Motorola in 2003. She was the highest-ranking woman in the company’s history; she had joined a Motorola semiconductor factory way back in 1984, one of the few women on the rolls, where she spent 23 years. She quit Motorola in 2007 and is tipped for the job of CEO in Cisco.
Warrior’s experience, strong credentials — she is an engineer who graduated from IIT-Delhi in 1982, one of five girls in her batch and holds a masters from Cornell — and sparkly resumé have earned her a Twitter following of 1.46 million. That explains her strong domain expertise and social appeal in the GIW study.
“I believe being a leader is all about making a lasting difference while staying authentic as a person. I focus my leadership on enabling Cisco to lead major market transitions,” Warrior told ET Magazine. Outside her core work, Warrior’s passion is to mentor the next generation of leaders, especially women in technology.
Warrior’s ‘integration’ in focusing on the things most important to her has been inspiring for her social media followers. It is said that her son would cry and so would she whenever he saw her suitcase because he knew she would be travelling. She began involving him in her work and travel. This way he could be involved in her life — even when she wasn’t there — something that her fans admire her for. In her own words, “as a person I am approachable, straight-forward and decisive”.
“I was very close to my parents growing up in India. Engineering education in India is often highly competitive, and I am proud to have been one of only five girls enrolled in my class of 250 at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, where I spent my formative years,” she said.
Warrior is considered among the most influential tech visionaries globally with Fortune Magazine having called her one of four rising stars on its Most Powerful Women list way back in 2006. “Technology has always had an impact on society and our lives — from the industrial revolution to the information revolution. This impact is often positive but occasionally negative. We are witnessing unprecedented pace of change across every industry today. The internet, mobile and cloud are at the heart of this change. We are about to enter the era of internet of everything which is the networked connection between people, process, data and things,” she says
Finding women at the top in Silicon Valley — steeped in a culture dominated by men — is a rarity. And to find an Indian-origin woman at that would seem near impossible.
Padmasree Warrior, chief technology & strategy officer at Cisco Systems, is a notable exception. Warrior became CTO and executive veep at Motorola in 2003. She was the highest-ranking woman in the company’s history; she had joined a Motorola semiconductor factory way back in 1984, one of the few women on the rolls, where she spent 23 years. She quit Motorola in 2007 and is tipped for the job of CEO in Cisco.
Warrior’s experience, strong credentials — she is an engineer who graduated from IIT-Delhi in 1982, one of five girls in her batch and holds a masters from Cornell — and sparkly resumé have earned her a Twitter following of 1.46 million. That explains her strong domain expertise and social appeal in the GIW study.
“I believe being a leader is all about making a lasting difference while staying authentic as a person. I focus my leadership on enabling Cisco to lead major market transitions,” Warrior told ET Magazine. Outside her core work, Warrior’s passion is to mentor the next generation of leaders, especially women in technology.
Warrior’s ‘integration’ in focusing on the things most important to her has been inspiring for her social media followers. It is said that her son would cry and so would she whenever he saw her suitcase because he knew she would be travelling. She began involving him in her work and travel. This way he could be involved in her life — even when she wasn’t there — something that her fans admire her for. In her own words, “as a person I am approachable, straight-forward and decisive”.
“I was very close to my parents growing up in India. Engineering education in India is often highly competitive, and I am proud to have been one of only five girls enrolled in my class of 250 at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, where I spent my formative years,” she said.
Warrior is considered among the most influential tech visionaries globally with Fortune Magazine having called her one of four rising stars on its Most Powerful Women list way back in 2006. “Technology has always had an impact on society and our lives — from the industrial revolution to the information revolution. This impact is often positive but occasionally negative. We are witnessing unprecedented pace of change across every industry today. The internet, mobile and cloud are at the heart of this change. We are about to enter the era of internet of everything which is the networked connection between people, process, data and things,” she says
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