Top Career Path: Marketing : Karen Walker at Cisco

Current	Cisco
Previous	Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard
Education	Kellogg Executive Education

500+connections

Background

Summary

Karen Walker is the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Cisco. As Cisco’s CMO, Karen leads the company’s Global Marketing, Corporate Communications, and Government and Community Relations groups. Her organization is responsible for positioning Cisco's growth strategy, cultivating opportunities in new and existing customer markets, and growing demand for Cisco's solutions globally.

Global Perspective:
Lived and worked in Europe, North America and Asia, leading teams in developed and emerging markets and representing unique needs of international markets, customers, and partners.

Technology Marketing Expertise:
Business-to-Consumer and Business-to-Business markets (SMB, Enterprise, SP and Public Sector). Experience in all elements of marketing lifecycle: business and brand strategy, corporate marketing, product management, portfolio, segment, industry, partner and field marketing. Hardware, software, XaaS, services and solutions marketing leadership.

Transformational Leadership:
Passionate and decisive marketing leader credited with transforming marketing to deliver profitable business impact. Collaborative executive focused on building, motivating and leading cross-functional teams. Fosters innovation and talent, and is a strong advocate of industry-leading social and digital marketing practices.

Social Bio:
http://newsroom.cisco.com/karen-walker?articleId=1046666

Target Marketing June 2015

Karen Walker - Cisco Executive - The Network: Cisco's Technology News Site

Cisco Commercial | Hackers

PODCAST: Karen Walker: Why Marketing is The New Revenue Generator

Cisco SVP: Marketing Has Moved From 'Fluffy Function' To Major Moneymaker

Experience

Chief Marketing Officer

Cisco

June 2015 – Present (1 year 1 month)San Jose, California

Responsible for the company’s Global Marketing, Corporate Communications, and Government and Community Relations groups. Positions Cisco's growth strategy, cultivates opportunities in new and existing customer markets, and grows demand for Cisco's solutions globally.

Promotes the Cisco Brand to build awareness and loyalty with customers and partners. At #14 on Interbrand’s annual survey of top 100 global brands, Cisco increased its brand value by 6% (to US $30.936B in 2014). Cisco is recognized as the company to which customers say they are most emotionally connected (Google/CEB 2013 study).

Senior Vice President - Marketing

Cisco Systems

February 2013 – Present (3 years 5 months)San Jose, California

Led the Go To Market organization that created and delivered the integrated global marketing plan for Cisco, from marketing strategy through to in-country execution of brand campaigns and marketing programs. Included functional responsibility for demand/revenue generation, segment marketing, integrated marketing communications, event marketing, seller enablement, and partner marketing.

Drove strategy and planning for the full marketing communications mix, including the industry's leading B2B events and Cisco’s sales and marketing efforts for London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Championed marketing’s role as an accountable business function aligning closely with sales teams and a vital resource to partners. Launched a cross-organizational $1B annual revenue generation initiative that delivered $2.41B in Sales Qualified Leads within 10 months, and launched Demand Gen as a Service (DGaaS) for partners.

(Open)9 honors and awards

VIDEO: The Marketer of the Future - Marketing Velocity 2014

INCITE INTERVIEW: Cisco's SVP of Marketing Karen Walker on Content: Its Real Cost and Value - Incite Hub

VIDEO: What Cisco Partners Need to Know About Revenue Marketing

ITSMA INTERVIEW: Transform Marketing from a Cost Center to a Revenue Engine

#ExecInsights: IoE, Healthcare, and Parking Among Hot Topics at Gartner Symposium

Senior Vice President - Segment, Services & Partner Marketing

Cisco Systems

July 2011 – January 2013 (1 year 7 months)San Jose, California

Directed and motivated a global team of marketing professionals to align behind one integrated marketing campaign by each market window, engaging customers with Cisco solutions to address their technology challenges. Created and implemented Cisco's next-generation blueprint for demand generation and sales enablement to accelerate growth. Additionally led Partner Marketing team in support of both customer and partner-led models, with the goal of strengthening and growing profitable relationships with strategic partners.

(Open)3 honors and awards

Internet of Everything Video for Partners

Internet of Everything

Global Vice President, Marketing and Communications - Cisco Services

Cisco Systems

January 2009 – August 2011 (2 years 8 months)

Responsible for global marketing for Cisco Services, an $11B global business representing 22% of Cisco’s overall revenue. Accelerated the Services business and portfolio strategy, leading the portfolio management and all elements of the outbound marketing mix including demand generation. Drove the Cisco consumer marketing strategy, ensuring products were globally relevant and with a winning GTM plan in place. Delivered a new digital experience for Services using inbound and content marketing strategies that engaged the customer, increased marketing qualified leads from the web by up to 25%, and tripled traffic on key pages.

Vice President of Marketing, Americas, Technology Systems Group (TSG)

Hewlett-Packard

2007 – 2009 (2 years)

Led all elements of the marketing plan to support the $13.8B PC, server, storage, software and services business in the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Increased revenue growth through portfolio-centric sales enablement and closed-looped marketing. Achieved a 20% contribution to revenue pipeline and delivered a 45:1 revenue to marketing cost ROI. Transformed marketing organization with talent refresh, accountability, and processes to maximize contribution to business performance.

Worldwide Vice President of Marketing, HP Services

Hewlett-Packard

2005 – 2007 (2 years)

Redefined HP Services portfolio, including rationalization, integration and governance. Defined Partner strategy to cover market and portfolio gaps. Developed compelling market positioning, value proposition, sales and delivery collateral.

Executive Director, Consumer Digital Entertainment Business

Hewlett-Packard

2003 – 2005 (2 years)

Provided strategic marketing leadership for HP's Digital Entertainment portfolio. Led current and future product marketing and management for Media Hub, iPod, TVs and services. Defined consumer experience for Pavilion sub brand and led brand implementation, including product functionality and design, positioning, pricing, packaging, and purchase and support experience.

Worldwide Vice President of Business & Marketing Strategy, Personal Systems Group

Hewlett-Packard

2001 – 2003 (2 years)Cupertino, California

Developed HP's Personal Systems Group business and marketing growth strategies for personal computers. Led the definition of HP-Compaq brand strategy and portfolio. Drove operational and program management of Personal Systems HP Direct business.

Other HP Roles

Hewlett-Packard

1984 – 2001 (17 years)

Marketing Director of E-Business Ventures and Strategic Alliances (1995-2001)
Field Practice Leader for Consulting in Europe, U.S. and Asia (1984-1995)

Publications

DigitalTransformation Fueling the Need for Workforce Transformation(Link)

Karen Walker

May 12, 2015

See how digital disruption is transforming virtually every role in every industry.

Smart Companies Will Embrace Social Support and Social Selling(Link)

Sprinklr Social@Scale Journal

July 8, 2014

When it comes to being social, smart companies recognize three things...the first being that your customers' social expectations continue to rise.

[VIDEO] Brand Appeal: I Second That Emotion(Link)

Business Marketing Association Conference 2014

May 30, 2014

Use password BMA2014 to view video presentation.

At BMA14: Cisco's Walker says emotion is the key to driving B2B loyalty, sales(Link)

FierceCMO

May 30, 2014

According to a Google/CEB study conducted earlier this year, B2B buyers are more emotionally attached to the brands they purchase than their B2C counterparts, said Cisco's Senior VP of Marketing Karen Walker during a presentation at BMA14.

2 authors

Tequia Burt
Karen Walker

Chief Marketing Officer at Cisco

Transform Marketing from a Cost Center to a Revenue Engine(Link)

ITSMA

May 27, 2014

With today’s technologies – social media; anytime, anywhere technology; mobility; video; cloud; big data and analytics – marketing is now enabled to drive revenue. Karen Walker, Cisco SVP of Global Marketing, leveraged these technologies to engage with the customer and change the view of marketing from a “cost center” to a revenue generator.

2 authors

Anna Whiting
Karen Walker

Chief Marketing Officer at Cisco

Cisco’s SVP of Marketing Karen Walker on Content: Its Real Cost and Value(Link)

Incite

May 12, 2014

Last week, we got the chance to sit down with Karen Walker, the forward-thinking Senior Vice President of Marketing at Cisco. Throughout our conversation, one point came up again and again: this is a decisive moment for marketers.

2 authors

Mark Kersteen
Karen Walker

Chief Marketing Officer at Cisco

Cisco SVP: Marketing Has Moved From 'Fluffy Function' To Major Moneymaker(Link)

CRN

May 7, 2014

Cisco is taking big strides to redefine its marketing organization and is urging solution providers to evolve along with it, Karen Walker, senior vice president of marketing at Cisco, told CRN.

2 authors

Kristin Bent
Karen Walker

Chief Marketing Officer at Cisco

Marketing Insights on Revenue Generation, Buying Patterns, and the Role of Social(Link)

Cisco Blogs: Channels

February 17, 2014

Revenue-generating marketing, customer buying patterns, and social selling are a few of the topics I talked about recently with Glenn Gow of Crimson Marketing. I’m pleased to share these excerpts from our conversation and invite you to listen to the podcast.

It's time to elevate marketing and be accountable for ROI(Link)

FierceCMO

October 27, 2013

With today's social media and anytime-anywhere technology dynamics, we're seeing the way customers purchase is increasingly more customer-initiated and customer-driven, making the relationship with the customer more critical than ever.

#ExecInsights: IoE, Healthcare, and Parking Among Hot Topics at Gartner Symposium(Link)

Cisco Blogs: The Platform

October 22, 2013

Interest in the Internet of Everything was high at #GartnerSym. In my meetings with several analysts, CIOs and IT leaders, it was clear today’s CxOs get the amazing possibilities the Internet of Everything can offer.

Gartner ITxpo: The Internet of Everything Drives Business Innovation(Link)

Cisco Blogs: Internet of Everything

October 3, 2013

In a few days, I have the opportunity to discuss how the Internet of Everything (IoE) is opening up new levels of innovation, business models, and economic opportunity to CIOs and IT leaders.

Cisco Marketing Velocity 2013: A Glimpse Into the Future of Marketing(Link)

Cisco Blogs: Channels

April 18, 2013

This week, I’ve been meeting with more than 200 partner marketing executives at Cisco’s annual Marketing Velocity event. The conversation here is very much about our profession being at a massive inflection point – one where we can completely change the face of marketing and where it’s going.