Cisco promotes duo in CEO succession contest

Gary Moore and Rob Lloyd elevated to president a week after chief executive John Chambers fires starting gun on succession race

Cisco has promoted two executives recently named as contenders to succeed long-standing chief executive John Chambers.

Chambers last week fired the starting gun on the contest to replace him by indicating he plans to stand down in two to four years and outlining a list of possible successors.

Two of the candidates – Gary Moore and Rob Lloyd – have now been promoted to president and will have expanded roles at the networking goliath.

On top of his role as chief operating officer, which he has held since February 2011, Moore will now be accountable for Cisco's end-to-end operations.

Lloyd will assume responsibility for Cisco's development and sales units.

The reshuffle did not stop there as Cisco announced that former Americas sales boss Chuck Robbins will step into Lloyd's old shoes as head of worldwide sales. Pankaj Patel will continue to lead Cisco's development organisation while Wim Elfrink, executive vice president and chief globalisation officer, will continue his focus on emerging solutions, Cisco stressed.

Chambers said: "Cloud computing, mobility and the internet of everything are the most network-centric computing transitions that have ever been, and present Cisco with an opportunity to lead the communications and IT industry for the next decade. Today we are evolving our organisation and developing our leadership team to grasp this opportunity."

Moore added: "Today's announcement advances the accountability and operational discipline we reinvigorated 18 months ago. This model will give clear responsibility and accountability for driving faster, more customer-focused innovation and the operational excellence and talent needed to enable it."