Cisco's Volpi Resigns

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 2/8/2007 5:16:00 PM

The executive in charge of Cisco Systems’ routing and service-provider technology group, Michelangelo "Mike" Volpi, resigned, the company announced Thursday.

The company said Volpi is leaving to pursue new professional opportunities. “Mike has not yet decided what his next steps will be,” Cisco public-relations manager Kevin R. Petschow wrote in an e-mail, adding, “Cisco is proud to have had Mike as a leader, and he will always be considered part of the extended Cisco family.”

With Volpi’s departure, Cisco said it will reorganize its product-development groups for telecommunications- and cable-service providers and network-operating-system software to “better respond to increasing business opportunities and customer requirements in these areas.”

The group Volpi headed will be renamed the service-provider-technology group, to be managed by Cisco senior vice presidents Tony Bates and Pankaj Patel. Some other related operations will now report directly to Cisco chief development officer Charlie Giancarlo, the company said.

Bates led development of Cisco’s Carrier Routing System, or CRS-1, which the company described as a "supercomputer" router for managing fast-growing Internet-protocol communications networks for large telecommunications companies. Patel most recently directed Cisco’s operations that develop technologies for service providers and large corporate networks, particularly for high-speed broadband connections.

Also as part of the reorganization, Cisco will create a "center of software expertise" to help the company better integrate its various network-operating systems into a modular architecture. That effort will be led Cisco executives Lele Nardin and Bob Marinconz.