Cisco announced leadership changes to its Common Hardware Group (CHG) in a move to “build on our momentum and deliver unmatched innovation for our customers,” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins wrote in a blog detailing the changes.

Eyal Dagan, who led the CHG for eight years, is transitioning to focus on his role with the executive leadership team as the EVP of strategic projects. “Transitioning to a new role is something Eyal and I have been discussing for some time,” Robbins said.

Under Dagan’s leadership, Cisco claims it built a multibillion-dollar webscale business from the ground up.

Martin Lund is joining the company to take Dagan’s place as executive VP of Cisco’s CHG, which is responsible for the silicon, hardware and optics for the company’s switching, routing, optical cable access and IoT products.

Lund led Broadcom’s networking business for 12 years before becoming CEO of cloud-native communications software vendor Metaswitch Networks, which Microsoft acquired in 2020.

Lund joins Cisco following a stint at Microsoft as corporate VP for Azure for Operators, where he was responsible for delivering Microsoft cloud-based services for public and private 5G, packet core, voice, and AI operations.

“Martin’s experience defining strategy, leading global teams and driving growth combined with his extensive background in networking and AI make him the right leader to drive this critical part of our business forward,” Robbins said.

With both Dagan and Lund’s combined expertise, “I am incredibly excited about what we can achieve for Cisco’s future,” Robbins said.

What’s next for Cisco?

Cisco last week completed its $28 billion acquisition of Splunk – the networking giant’s largest deal to date. With Splunk “officially on board,” Robbins says Cisco is “uniquely positioned to power and protect the AI revolution.”

The tech giant acquired Splunk for $157 per share in cash, representing approximately $28 billion in equity value. The acquisition is expected to be cash-flow positive and be gross-margin accretive in fiscal year 2025, and non-GAAP earnings per share accretive in fiscal year 2026.

The Splunk acquisition comes at a pivotal time as the adoption and impact of AI are rapidly accelerating across industries. Robbins added that Cisco intends to provide the infrastructure necessary for powering AI, the data for its development, a security platform for its protection and an observability platform for its real-time management and monitoring.

“I am confident that with the strong foundation we have, we will accelerate the great work the teams are doing and identify new opportunities to deliver differentiated technology and solutions that will fuel the future of AI,” Robbins said.