Guillermo Diaz, Cisco

SVP, Customer Transformation

Guillermo Diaz Biography

Guillermo Diaz, Jr., is a Global Technology Leader and Champion of Inclusion and Diversity. He is a transformational leader across Cisco and broadly in the industry known for aligning people, process and technology. Most recently, from 2015 to 2019, he served as Cisco’s Chief Information Officer responsible for the Global Information Technology organization, strategy and services. His focus was driving the business acceleration critical to the agile, digital transformation of Cisco, its customers and partners. In the newly formed charter as head of Customer Transformation, he and his team will leverage Cisco’s own digital journey and thought leadership to partner with customers on their own transformation programs.

He began his career in telecommunications with the U.S. Navy, where a military scholarship led to his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Regis University in Colorado. Prior to Cisco, Guillermo held senior IT leadership positions with some of Silicon Valley’s most respected companies, including Director of Global Network Services for Silicon Graphics, Senior Director of IT for Intelligent Electronics (Ingram Micro), and Manager of Telecommunications for Alza Corporation.

Since joining the company in 2000, Guillermo has been a major driver in the development of Cisco’s world-class IT organization. He has led initiatives that transformed significant business foundation, from the Cisco Networked infrastructure to all primary business IT application areas. These application areas include Cisco’s $48B+ electronic commerce, technical services, professional services, service sales and marketing, customer service, Cisco Capital, and cloud/SaaS platforms. Since becoming CIO in 2015, he has simplified the IT financial structure driving more than 30% improvement in cost, while helping drive Cisco’s top line through being Customer Zero and using Cisco’s own technology – products, software, services – as a key growth accelerator.

Inclusion and Diversity is a top priority and passion for Mr. Diaz as evidenced by his sustained work inside his organization, across Cisco and broadly in the community. He is a key leader of the Cisco Diversity Council and the executive sponsor of Conexión - Cisco’s Hispanic/Latino employee resource organization and Cisco’s Veteran employee resource organization. He has led the acceleration of building future technology leaders, who happen to be Hispanic through his innovative leadership with student work-study programs inside of Cisco, scholarships delivered through the Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITEC) and is now the Chairman of HITEC.

Guillermo is the recipient of the 2017 Innovation: Technology Business Management; 2016, Executive Sponsor of the Year – Cisco customer success award; 2016 Top 10 LIDERES award and the 2015 Estrella of the Year Award for outstanding individual leadership in the information technology field. He was also honored as one of 100 CIO/CTO Leaders in STEM. In addition, he has been recognized by the Silicon Valley Business Journal as 2014 Best CIO Community Champion and as one of the Top Hispanics in IT from 2009 through 2017 by HITEC. Other awards include the National Eagle Leadership Award in 2010 and CIO Magazine’s Ones to Watch Award in 2007.

Guillermo lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, four children, and French bulldog Stitch. Enjoys his family, sports and is an avid golfer.

Previous Role

Chief Information Officer, Cisco Systems