Cisco appoints MD for Sub-Sahara Africa

Cisco has appointed Cathy Smith as the managing director for its Sub-Saharan African office.

Smith joined Cisco in April 2015 as the head of the company’s business operations across South Africa.

A statement said in her role, she was responsible for the development and execution of Cisco’s go-to-market sales and digital transformation strategies for the region.

The statement read in part, “She will now look after the whole of the region reporting to David Meads. Olakunle Oloruntimehin, who is the General Manager for Cisco Nigeria and English-speaking West Africa; and David Bunei, General Manager, East Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, remain in their roles but will work with and report to Smith in her expanded role.

“As Sub-Saharan Africa’s governments and organisations embrace the next wave of technology transformation and become fully digitised, this presents a new opportunity for new revenue streams, better customer, citizen service delivery, new operating models to deliver greater value, and new job streams.”

It added, “Smith has over 25 years of experience in the Information Technology industry, leading diverse teams in both private and public sector organisations, as well as building strong partner and customer relations. Smith spent 23 years with IBM where she held various leadership roles in IT service delivery, HR and sales.

“Before joining IBM, she worked for several companies in the insurance industry as an application developer. She also spent three years in the United Kingdom where she consolidated her international expertise and held a number of executive roles for the European and global markets with a focus on outsourcing services business.”

According to the statement, Smith is a Fellow of the African Leadership Initiative, an organisation set up to develop the next generation of value-based African leaders who are capable of guiding and leading their countries as they struggle to align the demands of globalisation with local visions of a sustainable society.

She is a Board Director at Cisco Systems South Africa and Cisco Technologies Solutions.