Agenda

Jeetu Patel is Cisco’s Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer. He is focused on bringing the power of the Cisco portfolio together to connect and protect every aspect of customers’ businesses in the AI era. 

Jeetu joined Cisco in 2020 as the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Security and Collaboration where he reinvigorated organic innovation, championed key inorganic investments, and drove simplification across these multibillion-dollar portfolios with a fanatical focus on design and user experience positioning them for success and growth. 

He has 20+ years of senior leadership experience driving product design, development, innovation, and business growth.

Anurag Dhingra is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Collaboration. This multi-billion-dollar business boasts the award-winning Webex product portfolio, including Cisco Collaboration Devices, the Webex Suite, and the Webex Contact Center. Anurag leads one of the largest teams working on AI at Cisco and has played a pivotal role in shaping the AI strategy.

Anurag is dedicated to delivering exceptional collaboration experiences for employees and customers in our increasingly digital and AI-driven world. His team has delivered thousands of innovations across the Webex portfolio and is helping to future-proof the work experience and how people connect.

In his tenure with Cisco, Anurag has held several leadership roles in Collaboration, including Chief Technology and Product Officer where he led the entire software business for Cisco Collaboration. He was also Vice President and Head of Engineering for Webex Meetings where he was responsible for delivering applications and services to power online meetings for millions of users worldwide.

With over 20 years of experience in Communications, Collaboration, and SaaS industry, Anurag is accomplished at building high performance global teams and creating innovative, market leading products. Anurag takes pride in being a customer-focused leader, with a proven track record of strategic thinking and executing with a strong culture of innovation.

Passionate about applying Technology for Good, Anurag serves on Cisco's Human Rights Advisory Council and started Cisco's Responsible AI initiative as founding executive sponsor. 

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, India.

Aruna Ravichandran is the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing & Customer Officer at Webex by Cisco, with 20+ years of experience leading global teams through workforce and technology transformations. With a passion for innovation, Aruna thrives in an ever-changing technology landscape. Her expertise in SaaS marketing, a visionary perspective of branding, and exceptional skill in data storytelling set her apart as a change agent in the industry, driving brand awareness and revenue growth. She also fiercely advocates for empowering women to embrace and pursue STEM careers.

Through her work at Webex and on various boards and committees, she actively seeks to make the field more accessible and enticing to women everywhere. Aruna holds an MBA and an MS in Computer Engineering from Santa Clara University, a BS in Computer Science from Bangalore Institute of Technology (BIT), and graduated from the esteemed CMO Leadership program at Kellogg Business School in 2019. Aruna also serves on the board at Cal Polytechnic San Luis Obispo, Fast Company, Forbes Technology Council, and Vox Media.

Fareed Zakaria is the host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN, a columnist for The Washington Post, and a bestselling author. Fareed Zakaria GPS is a weekly international and domestic affairs program that airs around the world on CNN and has won the prestigious Peabody Award. Zakaria is the author of five highly-regarded New York Times bestselling books, including his most recent, Age of Revolutions. Zakaria was named a “Top 10 Global Thinker of the Last 10 Years” by Foreign Policy magazine in 2019, and Esquire called him “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation.

Ted Kezios is the Senior Vice President of People Care, part of Cisco's People & Communications organization. Leading across global Compensation, Benefits, Employee Relations, and People Experience, Ted steers the development and delivery of world-class solutions that support the essential life needs of Cisco's 84,000 employees in almost 100 countries.

As the senior executive of People Care, Ted cultivates Cisco's inclusive culture and works to better the lives of its people. He and his team help each person thrive and enable teams to excel by ensuring fair pay, fostering their well-being, and providing a holistic employee experience.

In addition to leading global people functions, Ted is the executive sponsor of several major healthcare customers-UnitedHealthcare, Stanford, and Humana. He also harnesses the power of Cisco's people for good as a major sponsor of the Covenant House youth homelessness movement in Atlanta.

Before joining Cisco in 2000, Ted held sales, service, and financial management roles within large healthcare and financial service companies.

He earned his Master of Business Administration in Finance from Santa Clara University and his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Indiana University.  Ted, his wife, and their two children live in Atlanta, Georgia, where he enjoys cooking and a variety of fitness activities.

Mike Rockwell is Vice President of the Vision Products Group at Apple where he oversees the work on Apple’s AR technologies. Throughout his tenure at Apple, Mike has driven the growth of augmented reality experiences on iOS and iPadOS, the biggest AR platforms in the world, and the introduction of Apple Vision Pro, Apple’s first spatial computer. Under Mike’s leadership, he drove the tight integration of hardware and software to deliver Apple Vision Pro, the most advanced personal electronics device ever with over 5,000 patents aimed at bringing the next era of computing to the world.

Alexandr Wang joins Jeetu Patel for a fireside chat on AI during the WebexOne Opening Keynote.

Aruna Ravichandran is the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing & Customer Officer at Webex by Cisco, with 20+ years of experience leading global teams through workforce and technology transformations. With a passion for innovation, Aruna thrives in an ever-changing technology landscape. Her expertise in SaaS marketing, a visionary perspective of branding, and exceptional skill in data storytelling set her apart as a change agent in the industry, driving brand awareness and revenue growth. She also fiercely advocates for empowering women to embrace and pursue STEM careers.

Through her work at Webex and on various boards and committees, she actively seeks to make the field more accessible and enticing to women everywhere. Aruna holds an MBA and an MS in Computer Engineering from Santa Clara University, a BS in Computer Science from Bangalore Institute of Technology (BIT), and graduated from the esteemed CMO Leadership program at Kellogg Business School in 2019. Aruna also serves on the board at Cal Polytechnic San Luis Obispo, Fast Company, Forbes Technology Council, and Vox Media.

Snorre Kjesbu is Senior Vice President & General Manager of Collaboration Devices at Cisco. He is a global citizen leading a worldwide organization responsible for the collaboration devices business ranging from IP phones to immersive video systems. Snorre’s passion for design with over 20 years of engineering experience are at the core of his belief in always providing authentic user experiences.

Prior to his return to Cisco, Snorre was Executive VP of Design, Creation and Fulfillment at BANG & OLUFSEN in Copenhagen. His résumé also includes SVP at Tandberg and being responsible for R&D on wireless communication at ABB. He and his team at ABB were awarded the Wall Street Journal Innovation award for their work on wireless sensors in 2002. 

Snorre holds a Master of Science from the University of Bristol and has been a guest lecturer at the Stanford Network Research Center in Stanford University. He has obtained more than 20 patents in the areas of communications and video conferencing and is on the board of directors for several IT companies. When not working, Snorre can likely be seen on a pair of skis – whether on snow or water.

Hasmukh Ranjan is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at AMD, leading the IT and Indirect Procurement teams. AMD IT’s primary goals include process simplification to achieve operational excellence for IT operations, providing elastic computing to our engineers through grid efficiency and cloud expansion, and assessing the impact of innovative AI investments and adoption. He has extensive experience managing global IT operations and previously has worked at Xilinx and Synopsys. Ranjan has over 20+ years of experience as an IT leader and holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree, a Master of Computer Science, and a Master of Business Administration.

Nikki Parsons boasts a remarkable career spanning over 20 years in the information technology sector, with a specialized focus on infrastructure. Currently holding the position of Vice President of IT Engineering at Akamai Technologies, Nikki oversees the Network, Unified Communications, Messaging, and Service Delivery teams. Having joined Akamai in 2014, Nikki embarked on a mission to redesign and modernize the enterprise's unified communications and collaboration platforms. Her strategic efforts laid a robust pre-pandemic foundation, facilitating a seamless transition to a fully remote and highly productive workforce within a matter of days. Over the ensuing years, Nikki has spearheaded the reimagination of IT's service delivery, fostering a frictionless hybrid experience that concurrently propels employee productivity. In recognition of her outstanding contributions, Nikki was honored as the inaugural IT Winner of Akamai's most prestigious award, the Danny Lewin Award, in 2021. Beyond her professional endeavors, Nikki is deeply committed to cultivating a workplace culture characterized by trust, transparency, and professional independence. Her dedication to fostering inclusivity is evident in her recent appointment as the Chair of Akamai’s Enterprise Women’s Network. During her leisure time, Nikki indulges in outdoor activities, such as hiking and running, and maintains a commitment to physical fitness through strength training and participation in Orangetheory Fitness. Notably, throughout her tenure in the Bay Area, she has accomplished the impressive feat of completing seven marathons.

Eric Reed is the Senior Vice President and CTO of EverNorth Health Services, a division of The Cigna Group.  In this position Eric is responsible for all infrastructure services, including private and public cloud, for The Cigna Group.  Eric also has responsibility for Global Procurement and Third Party Management (GPTPM) and Contact Center Technology for The Cigna Group.

Matt Messick is the Chief Information Officer for the Dallas Cowboys. In his role, Matt leads the team responsible for the technical operations of AT&T Stadium, Dallas Cowboys Headquarters at The Star and all Jones Family related entities. Matt oversees a team of IT professionals dedicated to maintaining the Cowboys reputation as the leading franchise in professional sports.

Jay is the SVP & GM of Cisco's Webex Customer Experience Solutions business and joined Cisco when IMImobile PLC was acquired in 2021. He helped start IMImobile and as CEO led it to a successful IPO on the London Stock Exchange in 2014 and then to its acquisition by Cisco. Today he is working on creating technologies that help clients deliver the world's best customer experiences.

Jay enjoys working with entrepreneurs and fast growth technology businesses and has served as both an executive and non-executive director on the Boards of private and public companies and has led several investments and exits.

Prior to IMImobile Jay co-founded Spark Ventures plc, an early-stage venture capital firm, and held corporate finance roles at UBS Warburg and BSkyB. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG and has an MBA from INSEAD and an Economics degree from LSE. Jay is passionate about technology, economics and social justice.

Vinod is the VP & COO for the Webex Customer Experience Business Unit overseeing all Go-To-Market, Customer and Business Operations. In this role, Vinod works with the Cisco field, partners and customers to bring world class innovation from the Business Unit to the world. Vinod’s true passion lies in the joy of creation. Building beautiful products that solve real customer pain and are delivered with a frictionless and delightful customer experience are top of that list.

Vinod spent the last 3 years in Enterprise AI at Uniphore, a Cisco Investments Portfolio Company, where he built a stealth product that allows Citizen Developers to build AI and automation products from scratch. This gave Vinod a practitioner’s view of how Gen AI has radically shifted AI adoption at enterprises globally. Vinod was also the co-founder and CEO of CloudCherry, a world-class customer experience platform which helped business across the globe track, measure, analyze and improve their customer journeys with predictive analytics. CloudCherry was acquired by Cisco in 2019.

Vinod lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his family and a very vocal Husky. When not dreaming of customer experience, he is often consumed by thoughts of how to score more runs in his local amateur cricket league.

Matt Yanchyshyn is the VP for AWS Marketplace & Partner Services. He has worked in the digital media and technology industry for over 25 years, and joined Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2012 when cloud computing was just a glimmer in most CIOs' eyes. Matt has led multiple AWS service teams and technical sales organizations, including AWS Control Tower, AWS Service Catalog, AWS Well-Architected, and now all engineering for AWS' partner organization. Before joining AWS, Matt spent a decade at the Associated Press, where he built field offices all over the world and led modernization efforts for the AP's digital media distribution systems. Matt holds multiple AWS patents, is an Amazon Bar Raiser with >650 interviews, and has had the privilege of leading great teams who have launched dozens of new AWS programs, features, and products.

Rajesh Patel, MD, MPH, MA is Vice President of Digital Patient Experience at Mass General Brigham. Dr. Patel began his career as a software developer, focusing on filesystems for enterprise storage systems and networking protocols for web caching products. Over a decade ago he transitioned into medicine, completing his Internal Medicine Residency and serving as Chief Medical Resident at the University of Michigan. Following his residencies, Dr. Patel relocated to Boston to practice Addiction Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Hospital Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (now Beth Israel Lahey Health). He went on to hold leadership roles, including Chief Medical Information Officer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Deputy Chief Health Information Officer / Assistant Vice President at Beth Israel Lahey Health. In addition to his current position in Digital at Mass General Brigham, Dr. Patel also practices Hospital Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Doss Tychicus is an experienced IT leader with over 30 years in the field, overseeing impactful projects such as the consolidation of multiple EMR systems. Passionate about innovation, he has implemented various technologies like cloud solutions and virtual chat to support his organization’s mission. He enjoys exploring new technologies and global cuisine.

Aruna Ravichandran is the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing & Customer Officer at Webex by Cisco, with 20+ years of experience leading global teams through workforce and technology transformations. With a passion for innovation, Aruna thrives in an ever-changing technology landscape. Her expertise in SaaS marketing, a visionary perspective of branding, and exceptional skill in data storytelling set her apart as a change agent in the industry, driving brand awareness and revenue growth. She also fiercely advocates for empowering women to embrace and pursue STEM careers.

Through her work at Webex and on various boards and committees, she actively seeks to make the field more accessible and enticing to women everywhere. Aruna holds an MBA and an MS in Computer Engineering from Santa Clara University, a BS in Computer Science from Bangalore Institute of Technology (BIT), and graduated from the esteemed CMO Leadership program at Kellogg Business School in 2019. Aruna also serves on the board at Cal Polytechnic San Luis Obispo, Fast Company, Forbes Technology Council, and Vox Media.

Anurag Dhingra is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Collaboration. This multi-billion-dollar business boasts the award-winning Webex product portfolio, including Cisco Collaboration Devices, the Webex Suite, and the Webex Contact Center. Anurag leads one of the largest teams working on AI at Cisco and has played a pivotal role in shaping the AI strategy.

Anurag is dedicated to delivering exceptional collaboration experiences for employees and customers in our increasingly digital and AI-driven world. His team has delivered thousands of innovations across the Webex portfolio and is helping to future-proof the work experience and how people connect.

In his tenure with Cisco, Anurag has held several leadership roles in Collaboration, including Chief Technology and Product Officer where he led the entire software business for Cisco Collaboration. He was also Vice President and Head of Engineering for Webex Meetings where he was responsible for delivering applications and services to power online meetings for millions of users worldwide.

With over 20 years of experience in Communications, Collaboration, and SaaS industry, Anurag is accomplished at building high performance global teams and creating innovative, market leading products. Anurag takes pride in being a customer-focused leader, with a proven track record of strategic thinking and executing with a strong culture of innovation.

Passionate about applying Technology for Good, Anurag serves on Cisco's Human Rights Advisory Council and started Cisco's Responsible AI initiative as founding executive sponsor. 

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, India.

Trevor Noah is one of the most successful comedians in the world and was the host of the Emmy® Award-winning “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central for seven years. Under Trevor, “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” broke free from the restraints of a 30-minute linear show, producing engaging social content, award-winning digital series, podcasts and more for its global audience. In January of 2024, “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” won an Emmy for “Outstanding Talk Series.” Trevor has also notably served as the Grammy Awards host for four years in a row, with the 2024 show bringing in 16.9 million viewers, a 34% increase from last year’s show.

Trevor currently hosts a Spotify original weekly podcast titled What Now? With Trevor Noah. In this new podcast, listeners get a chance to hear Trevor like never before. Trevor is joined each episode by celebrities, thought leaders, athletes, and friends to chat about the contemporary topics on everyone’s minds. He brings the kinds of conversations that happen behind the scenes to light - full of radical candor, authentic back-and-forths, and honest reactions, with Trevor bringing to bear his classic, effortlessly playful and equally probing style.

Trevor is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller “Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood” and its young readers adaptation, released in 2019, titled “It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood,” which also debuted as a New York Times bestseller. The Audible edition of “Born a Crime,” performed by Trevor, remains one of the top-selling, highest-rated, and most-commented-on Audible performances of all time. To date, “Born a Crime” has sold over 3 million copies across all formats.

Following the extraordinary success of “Born a Crime,” Trevor’s new book titled “Into the Uncut Grass” is scheduled for release on October 8th, 2024. It is a gorgeously illustrated and moving modern fable for readers of all ages about forgiveness, acceptance, and the secret to solidarity.

Trevor's success has also spanned to sold out stand-up comedy shows across 5 continents. His current “Off The Record” World Tour stopped in 28 cities across the US before heading to international destinations, and a set from “Off the Record” became available as his fourth Netflix stand-up special titled Where Was I in 2023. Where Was I has recently scored two 2024 Emmy nominations for ‘Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) and ‘Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special’ as well as Golden Globe and Critic’s Choice Association nominations, sold out Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl, enjoyed a 10-consecutive-show run at the Beacon Theatre, sold out three O2 shows (50K tickets total) in London, and set a record for the most tickets sold by a non-German comedian in history in Berlin.

Trevor has written, produced, and starred in 12 comedy specials total, including Grammy and Emmy-nominated “I Wish You Would” for Netflix, which premiered globally in November 2022. True to form, Trevor hilariously shares revelations about learning to speak German, modern communication, and his love for curry. His previous special for Netflix, “Trevor Noah: Son of Patricia” received a NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Variety Show,” as well as a Grammy Award nomination for “Best Comedy Album”.

Trevor also moved from in front of the camera to a behind-the-scenes turn as executive producer with his production company, Day Zero Productions (DZP). The Emmy-nominated company, a joint venture between Paramount Global and Trevor, develops and produces entertaining and impactful content for a global audience. Current film projects include an adaptation of Noah’s best-selling and award-winning autobiography “Born A Crime,” a biopic centered on 8-year-old Nigerian chess champion Tanitoluwa Adewumi, and a reimagining of the classic Paramount feature President’s Analyst. On the television side, Day Zero is producing several scripted and unscripted series including Amazon Prime Video’s first South African original, “LOL: Last One Laughing.” The six-part unscripted comedy series produced and hosted by Trevor pits 10 famous South African comedians and entertainers against one another to see who can keep a straight face while simultaneously trying to make their opponents laugh – and lose. DZP also produced Emmy Award-winning The World According to Football for Showtime, The Turning Point series for MSNBC/Peacock, two Kid of the Year TV specials for Nickelodeon, and the HBOMax/Discovery+ special For All Humankind. DZP’s gaming arm recently created JokeNite, the first ever stand-up comedy club in the game Fortnite, along with Epic Games.

In 2018, Trevor launched the Trevor Noah Foundation to improve equitable access to quality education for underserved youth in South Africa. Trevor’s vision is a world where education enables youth to dream, see and build the impossible.