There's been a shakeup in Cisco's service provider division with the expected departure of top executive Yvette Kanouff, but Cisco has already named Jonathan Davidson as her replacement.
Kanouff currently serves as senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's service provider business, but she'll be leaving Cisco of her own accord. According to a story by Light Reading, Kanouff has a seat lined up on the board of a company where her focus will be on working with startups.
“We appreciate Yvette's leadership of our Service Provider business over the past four years and wish her all the best as she begins a new chapter," Cisco wrote in a statement. "Jonathan Davidson, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Service Provider Networking, will lead Cisco's SP business going forward."
Cisco's service provider group has taken a back seat as the company has made its move into recurring subscription revenues from software and services. In May, Cisco announced it was selling off its video software assets to private equity firm Permira. Six years ago Cisco paid Permira about $5 billion to buy NDS Group. Bloomberg wrote that Cisco was selling those assets back to Permira for around $1 billion.
RELATED: Cisco gets out of the video business, sells SPVSS back to Permira for reported $1B
Kanouff's telecommunications career started at Time Warner Cable before she moved over to SeaChange International where she rose to the position of president after serving as its chief strategy officer. Prior to joining Cisco in 2014, Kanouff served as executive vice president of engineering at Cablevision, which was subsequently bought by Altice.
Kanouff has been active in the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers by twice serving as the chair of its board. She is an executive member of Women in Cable and Telecommunications and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Davidson rejoined Cisco in March of last year after a seven-year stint in various roles at rival Juniper Networks. Davidson last served as executive vice president and general manager at Juniper Networks where he led its engineering and product management. In that role, he was responsible for driving strategy, development and business growth for the company's entire portfolio including routing, switching and security, as well as the Junos operating system.
Prior to Juniper Networks, Davidson held a variety of leadership positions at Cisco over the course of 15 years. He's currently in charge Cisco's service provider networking organization, which includes routing, networking and automation software solutions.