Yvette Kanouff Gets Bigger Role at Cisco

Cisco Systems has promoted Yvette Kanouff to a new role in which she will head up the company’s recently combined cloud groups, Multichannel News has learned. 

Cisco has not announced a new title Kanouff, but the company confirmed that she will now lead up a unit that combines Cisco’s Cloud Virtualization Group and Cloud Infrastructure Services teams. Cisco’s Service Provider Video Software and Solutions (SPVSS) business is also part of the group now led by Kanouff.

Additionally, Conrad Clemson, who joined Cisco following its acquisition of multiscreen video backoffice startup BNI Video (Clemson founded BNI Video), is now the head of Cisco SPVSS.

Cisco, which is selling its set-top unit to Technicolor, said scale is a key driver for the decision to combine these groups under Kanouff.

"Cloud is a key priority for Cisco and its customers,” a Cisco spokesperson said in a statement. “This is the right time and opportunity to bring together our cloud groups under one leader to drive scale, sharpen our focus and unify our priorities. We are combining our Cloud Virtualization Group (CVG) and Cloud Infrastructure Services (CIS) teams under Yvette Kanouff. She will lead this new organization, which will also include the SP Video Software and Solutions (SPVSS) business. Yvette will be relocating to San Jose. As part of this change, Conrad Clemson will be the new leader of SPVSS. He will not be relocating at this time."

Kanouff joined Cisco in June 2014 to head up its SPVSS unit, and has been based out of London.

Prior to that, she was executive vice president of corporate engineering and technology at Cablevision Systems, and was a longtime exec with SeaChange International. She is also late of Time Warner Cable, where she worked on The Full Service Network, a pioneering pilot program in Orlando that paved the way for cable’s shift to digital video and interactive services, including video-on-demand.