Richard Strong Email & Phone Number

Acquisition Integration Lead managing the integration of Development, Engineering IT and Product Management functions of newly acquired companies into Cisco, working closely with the Integration Management Office, the sponsoring Business Unit, C-Level Team and designated leads from the company being acquired, as well as cross-functional Cisco integration teams from InfoSec, Legal, IT, Finance, Services, Sales, Partner/Channels, Marketing, Supply Chain. Lead all phases of integration for these functional areas, including pre-announce operational diligence, detailed discovery, integration analysis, strategy, planning and execution. Coverage includes Engineering lab infrastructure, Engineering tools (JIRA/Rally, defect management, SCM, DevOps CI/CD, etc.), SDLC process, PPM process, InfoSec compliance, ISO, HW/SW licensing offer development, pricing, offer attribution, product branding, import/export compliance, commercial and open source SW compliance.Acquisitions worked on to date: Viptela (SD-WAN), MindMeld (Deep-Domain Conversational Artificial Intelligence), CloudLock (CASB & Cloud Cybersecurity), Lancope (Security Monitoring and Analytics), Jasper (IoT Platform), OpenDNS (Cloud Delivered Enterprise Security), Leaba (Semiconductor Design).

Post-acquisition integration Senior Program Manager for Intucell’s Self Optimized Network (SON) Suite used by Mobile Service Providers to boost the performance and efficiency of their Radio Access Networks (RANs). Worked with Acquisition Integration team to transition SON team to Cisco processes and successfully ship the first Cisco branded release. Established and lead extended Program Team, including Engineering, Product Management, Documentation, Training, Service Readiness, Finance and Supply Chain.Manage overall orderability readiness process, including product ID creation, license mapping, finance review and approval, Supply Chain readiness, etc. Manage product royalty tracking, BU level resource tracking and customer commitments tracking. BU focal point for key Cisco initiatives, including Cisco Secure Development Lifecycle (CSDL), Intellectual Asset Protection and ISO.

San Francisco Bay Area

Post-acquisition integration Senior Program Manager for Cariden’s WAN Orchestration Product Suite (WAN Automation Engine, MATE Collector, MATE Design and MATE Live) used to model, design, analyze, and control multivendor IP and MPLS networks.Partnered with Engineering and Product management to develop and implement a successful strategy for transitioning the team from Waterfall to an Agile development methodology (including Agile training, Rally structure definition, Dashboards, etc.). Facilitated partnership with Mobility CTO Team to ensure product architecture aligned with overall Mobility CTO strategy and to leverage CTO Team development and test resources.

Led Program Team for NetApp integration of 3rd party converged infrastructure Cloud Management Tools for FlexPod. Managed internal Program Team activities as well as meetings with Partner Executive Team to finalize product architecture, content, licensing strategy, pricing strategy, etc. Established and led Program Teams focused on bringing NetApp branded E-Series solutions to market to address customer Big Data opportunities for Analytics (Hadoop), Bandwidth (High Performance Computing, Full Motion Video, Media Content Management, Seismic Processing and Video Surveillance) and Content (Distributed Content Repository with StorageGRID). Led New Product Introduction (NPI) Program Teams responsible for introducing new NetApp branded E-Series components, as well as 3rd Party software and support offerings, within NetApp’s Big Data solutions. Led cross-functional team responsible for developing and implementing the transition strategy to NetApp’s next generation tools, QuoteEdge and SolutionBuilder, for quoting and sizing of E-Series solutions (used by NetApp Field, Channel Partners and Distribution Partners). Led effort to define and implement requirements for User Interface upgrades and new feature development in these tools to support standard and pre-racked NetApp solutions. Provided training to NetApp Field and Distribution Partners.

Managed a team of Senior System Program Managers within the Enterprise Architecture and Systems (EAS) group, with responsibility for Program Management of Cisco's Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI) Systems Releases. Cisco VXI System releases include components and architecture from multiple Cisco Technology Groups, as well as products from a number of Technology Partners, including Citrix, VMware, NetApp, and EMC. Led EAS Process Team in development of a system level Agile commit process for delivery of VXI System Releases. Created a phased transition plan from traditional waterfall release methodology to new agile-based process; trained EAS Team on new process and transition roadmap.

Program Management Lead for Cisco's initial VXI Systems Release. Established and led cross-functional core team which included not only Systems teams (System Product Management, System Architecture, System Validation, System TMEs, System Alpha, System EFT), but also leadership from multiple Cisco Technology Groups (covering Data Center, Networking, Collaboration, etc.) and Go To Market Teams (Marketing Communications, Sales Enablement, Field Engagement, Services, Support and Manufacturing). Established initial online collaboration framework and release methodology for Systems team.

Partnered in the development of the UC System Release process and served as Lead Program Manager for multiple Unified Communications (UC) Systems releases within the Voice Technology Group (VTG), incorporating products across multiple Bus - IPCBU, UCBU, CCBU, ARTG, NMTG, PMBU, SAVBU, STBU, WNBU. Established and led system release Core Teams, with cross-BU and system level sub team participation (Architecture/Engineering, Customer Field Trials, Support, Services, etc.), while serving as lead program manager for Architecture & Engineering and Deployment & Services system sub teams on multiple releases

Managed multiple high profile solutions for Major Opportunity (MOPs) Customers (SingTel, China Unicom). Single point of contact responsible for development and successful execution of overall coordinated program plan with input and active participation from Customer, Account Team, External Partners, Marketing, Architecture, Engineering, Solution Testing, Systems Engineering, Customer Advocacy, Training and Documentation. Lead Program Manager for multiple Hosted IP Telephony programs. Responsible for development and successful execution of detailed program plans for multiple, concurrent cross-BU customer solutions targeted for the Service Provider market segment. Managed program capital expenditures and resource requirements.

Director of Program Management for Aveo’s Attune product, an internet based client-server application to provide pre-emptive tech support to end users and e-commerce opportunities to ISVs, OEMs, etc.

Managed Program Management department with responsibility for Desktop Graphics solutions, concurrent with individual Program Management responsibility for Savage3D product.

Responsible for development, execution and tracking of Savage3D program project plan within a cross-matrix organization including: Product Architecture, Design Engineering, Central Engineering, Product Engineering, Systems Engineering, Software Development and Quality Assurance, Marketing, Sales, and ISV Relations.

Managed PMO with responsibility for successful delivery of all software deliverables included in the multimedia subsystem for all products in the Presario product line. Deliverables included software drivers for graphics controllers, audio controllers, video decompression codecs, and ISV applications taking advantage of new Presario multimedia features.

Responsible for successful delivery of the following software deliverables onto the Presario product line: ESS 1788/1888 audio controllers, AMD Interwave audio controller, Voyetra AudioStation application, S3 graphics controllers (86CM65, Trio64V+, ViRGE), VideoLogic PowerVR 3D accelerator, Mediamatics SW MPEG-1 decoder. Participated in vendor evaluation and selection.

Designed, implemented and executed translation management, build, change control, test strategy and defect reporting processes for localized versions of DB2 and OS/2 products.Software Development and Functional Test Lead for PC-based text editing and database applications. System Test Lead for Enhanced Connectivity Facility (ECF).