Cisco Connected Women
Present
The Connected Women
Leadership Forum 2013
A Program Guide
Event Overview
Cisco, a global leader in the Networking industry, is hosting its Annual
Connected Women's Leadership Forum, CWLF 2013, on Wednesday,
September 4th2013, in Bangalore.
This industry event is organized by Cisco Connected Women, an Employee
Resource Group (ERG) in Cisco. It is hosted by Cisco at our Bangalore
Campus at Cessna Business Park. It has been a successful annual feature
celebrating the growing participation of women in the workforce around the
world as engineers, scientists, marketers, sociologists, teachers, and students.
The intent of the event is to connect all the women and their supporters across
the ecosystem to create a day of learning, networking and fun for leaders and
professionals in the industry. This event provides equal opportunities to men
and women and it has been successfully represented by sizable participation
of attendees from Cisco and across the industry.
This year's theme is "Aspire, Reach Out, Rise Above ", with a special emphasis
on strengthening women leadership, motivation and personality
development.
Here is what this event means to the participants 


You get to actively interact with people of similar background and
interests
You can take away personal development tips and advice
You find opportunities to connect with successful women leaders
across the industry
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Agenda for the Day
Wednesday, September 4th2013
8:30 – 9:00 AM
Registration
9:00 – 9:30 AM
Event Launch and Welcome Note by V C
Gopalratnam, Vice President, IT and CIO APJC,
Cisco
9:30 – 10:20 AM
Keynote address by
Liz Centoni- Vice President/ General Manager,
Service Provider Access Business, Cisco
Kumud Srinivasan - Vice President, Technology and
Manufacturing Group and President, Intel India
10:30 – 11:30 AM
Panel Discussion on Aspire, Reach Out, Rise Above
11:30 – 12:00 PM
A Fun Session
12:00 – 12:30 PM
Motivational Speaker Session with Swarna Lakshmi
12:30 – 1:30 PM
Lunch Break
1:30 – 2:30 PM
Breakout Panel Sessions and Workshops
Soft Skills Track - The Power of Being Seriously
Silly
Technical Track - Programmability of Everything
Financial Planning Track - How to get Rich and
Retire Early
2:30 –3:30 PM
Networking Session
3:30 – 4:00 PM
Closing ceremony
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Our Keynote Speakers
Liz Centoni
Vice President and General Manager
Service Provider Wireline Access Group,
Cisco Systems Inc
Liz Centoni, a 13+ year Cisco veteran, is
responsible for leading the Service Provider
Wireline Access Group, which includes the
Access and Pre Aggregation portfolio
within the Service Provider Networking
Group. She has been instrumental in
driving discipline, cadence, and structure to
operational and strategic decision
processes, portfolio analysis, planning, and
analytics to maximize growth and
profitability for SPNG.
Ms. Centoni partners with senior leaders across Cisco functions to establish
shared priorities and accountability that continue to drive improved quality
and customer adoption. As part of her customer operations charter, she
works with high touch customers to drive product insertions, increase
engineering intimacy and executive focus with some of Cisco‟s top service
provider customers.
Ms. Centoni brings over 20+ years of marketing, sales, and engineering
experience to Cisco. She has worked for a variety of firms developing long
range investment plans, M&A, and branding programs for industries such as
consumer packaged goods and healthcare.
Her career progression can be attributed to her determination, courage, and
simply the enjoyment she gets from working in the high-tech service provider
industry. Ms. Centoni is passionate about personally contributing to business
transformation and the growth of individuals and teams.
Ms. Centoni holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Physics as
well as a Master‟s Degree in Business Administration.
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Kumud Srinivasan
President, Intel India and Vice
President, Technology and
Manufacturing Group, Intel.
Kumud M Srinivasan is President of
Intel India and Vice President of the
Technology and Manufacturing Group
at Intel. In this capacity, she is
responsible for general management of
Intel's operations in India, which
includes the location's overall strategy,
business-enabling operations,
organizational development,
engineering and innovation for market
development, as well as managing relationships with government, industry
and academia.
Ms. Srinivasan joined Intel in 1987 and has held several business and
information systems positions within Intel's manufacturing and IT
organizations.
Ms. Srinivasan is a member of the Board of Advisors of the School of
Information Studies in Syracuse University.She is a member of the Governing
Body of the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore. She
serves on the India Council of the Anita Borg Institute.
Ms. Srinivasan received her bachelor's degree in economics from Calcutta
University in 1981 and her master's degree in information and library studies
from Syracuse University in 1984. In addition, she has completed doctoral
coursework in Information Science at University of California, Berkeley.
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Panel Discussions and Panelists
Panel Discussion on Aspire, Reach Out, Rise Above
Panelists:
Rohini Srivathsa, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Global Business Services (GBS), IBM
India/South Asia
Dr. Rohini Srivathsa is focused on Front Office
Transformation areas of Mobility, Social Business, Smarter
Commerce, Analytics and Cloud. She has over 20 years of experience in
strategy consulting, practice leadership, sales & marketing and R&D
leadership. Rohini has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania, USA, and a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the
University of Texas at Austin, USA. She has published extensively and is a
frequent invited panelist/speaker on topics related to innovation, business
strategy, technology and women in leadership.
JayshreeGururaj
Senior Director, Customer Services, Cisco
Jayshree brings nearly 20 years of experience in leading
global teams in multiple geographies (US, EMEA and India)
across a wide range of technologies and domains with
companies like AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies and Hewlett-Packard.
She holds a Master‟s degree in Computer Science and an MBA from the Ohio
State University, Columbus, Ohio.
Prakash Belawadi
Founder, Suchitra School of Cinema and Dramatic Arts
Prakash Belawadihas a BE in Mechanical Engineering and
moved on to become a successful journalist and a known
personality in cinema and theatre. He is a co-founder of
Centre of Film and Drama, which has launched Suchitra School of Cinema
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and Dramatic Arts in Bangalore. He is a regular columnist for Bangalore
Mirror. He has won several accolades including a National Award for best
feature film in English, 2003; Nataka Academy Award; Aryabhatta Award for
Best Direction among others. Contact him [email protected]
AkilaKrishnakumar
Former - President Global Solution Centers at SunGard
Akila built and led SunGard‟s global R&D and operations
footprint, including establishing and growing centers in
India, China and Tunisia from 800 to 4000 employees. She
spearheaded operational excellence programs, distributed product
development initiatives and productivity improvement across the global R&D
organization. She is the former Chairperson for the American Chamber of
Commerce Chapter and Chair of Nasscom‟s Regional Council. She has been
counted among the top 5 women leaders in the Indian technology industry
and also listed amongst the “50 Most Powerful Business Women in India”.
PriyaChetty-Rajagopal
Vice President & Partner, Stanton Chase International
A well known industry figure at Bangalore, PriyaChettyRajagopal heads the Corporate Practice at Stanton
Chase International, a premier Executive Search firm rated
as the top seven worldwide. She is a long term member of the Global Stanton
Chase Business Excellence Committee, Global Vice President – Corporate
Initiatives, and has focused on setting up their Global Diversity Practice.
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Our Motivational Speaker
MsSwarna Lakshmi
Ms. Swarna Lakshmi is currently working for Canara Bank as a Probationary
Officer. She is a Graduate in Computer Science from Nagpur University.
Swarnalost her vision after she graduated – when suddenly she realized that
the person she could see a few seconds ago at a distance of 50 ftwas no longer
visible! Her loss of vision was very sudden- and she was rushed to the
hospital immediately. It was diagnosed that she had a brain tumor hidden
inside the cluster of nerves – which also had a nervous system within it! The
tumor was growing rapidly and was very close to bursting, which meant that
she was left with her last few counts of breath.She was put under the knife
and the tumor was successfully removed. Whileher life was saved, the
doctors could not revive the vision loss.
Her journey into the new world with different approaches started at that
point. She got enrolled with an NGO that helped her move to Bangalore. She
learnt many new technologies including operating computers using screen
readers. She took bank exams to qualify for employment in a nationalized
bank – and was successful in getting gainful employment with Canara Bank.
Swarna works tirelessly to guide and teach other visually impaired
individuals. She coaches them for corporate interviews, helps them prepare
for competitive exams and guides them in creating presentations, enriching
them with her corporate experience and tips for clear business
communication in English.
She is an eternal optimist with the courage to swim against the tide when
needed. She has an inspiring message to never give up easily and ruin this
precious life the Almighty has given us. She is thankful for her supportive
and understanding family.
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Our Workshops
Soft Skills Track
The Power of Being Seriously Silly- SameeraIyengar
SameeraIyengar is co-founder of Junoon, an organisation
that aims to make the richness of theatre and the
performing arts accessible to people across
India. Previous to Junoon, Sameera was Director Projects
at Prithvi Theatre, where she worked from 2002 to 2011.
Sameera has a PhD focusing on theatre from the Department of South Asian
Languages &Civilisations at the University of Chicago, but her theatre
journey began in her undergraduate years at MIT, where she majored in
mathematics and minored in theatre. She believes that theatre can open doors
of imagination and empathy and sheer delight - and is committed to bringing
this possibility of theatre to more and more people across India.
Technical Track
Programmability of Everything -AmruturBhardwaj, MukeshTaneja and
Ravishankar G Shiroor.
Amrutur Bharadwaj is the Associate Professor at Indian
Institute of Science. He has his BTech in CS&E from IIT
Bombay and a MS and PhD in EE from Stanford
University. He has been previously employed at Agilent
Labs, Palo Alto, CA where he primarily worked on High
Speed Chip to Chip interconnects, and at Greenfield
Networks (now part of Cisco), where he worked on networking ASICs for
high speed packet processing applications. Since 2004, he has been braving
Bangalore Traffic and Roads, to do guru-giri at IISc.
MukeshTaneja is a Principal Engineer, Cisco. He has been
working in the areas of Internet of Things and
Mobility. Prior to joining Cisco, he worked on commercial
products in the areas of Macro cell, Small Cell, IP
networking & MPLS. He worked on standards related to
MAC, Security and All-IP networking architectures for LTE,
3G and Cellular – WLAN technologies. Mukesh has a PhD from University of
California San Diego and Executive Management training from
IIM,Bangalore.
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Ravishankar G Shiroor is Co-founder, Stellapps
Technologies. He has more than 17 years of experience in
the Telecommunications. He is an entrepreneur focused on
developing and deploying M2M, Smart Systems and
Internet of Things based end-to-end technology solutions
specific to industry segments specific emerging economies
like India. StellappsTechnologies, is making significant inroads in applying
these technologies into Dairy and Agriculture sectors.
Financial Track
How to get Rich and Retire Early - S. G. Raja Sekharan
S.G. Raja Sekharan is avisiting MBA faculty, mentor to
budding entrepreneurs, a wealth management consultant
and an author of a book „How to get Rich and Retire
early‟ on Investing in India.He has an active blog on
investing in India. His corporate life included leadership
roles in HR and Sales in NTT Data. Raj got his PGDBM
from XLRI Jamshedpur and Chemical Engineering Degree from CIT,
Coimbatore.
Contact him at [email protected]
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About Cisco Connected Women (CCW)
Cisco recognizes the need for more female participation in high technology
and business. Cisco has programs and resources to help women develop their
skills as individual contributors, managers, and senior executives. In line with
its inclusive organizational culture, Cisco has a number of employee networks
to support the development and growth opportunities of staff – and Cisco
Connected Women (CCW) is an important one. CCW has a broad vision “to
contribute to the strategic effort to enhance Cisco's success in attracting,
developing and retaining talented women employees”. Cisco views the CCW
as an integral part of its business success.
CCW India has more than 350 employees as members. CCW activities are
strategized and executed by a core team of volunteers, with the guidance of
executive sponsors and thought leaders. The volunteers develop programs in
line with the business guidelines and employee-needs in the context of the
local culture. The executive sponsors provide thought leadership, business
direction and funding for such initiatives.
Like its other employee networks, Cisco‟s CCW in India maintains a business
plan, with specific goals in several focus areas that support the company's
business objectives.These include:
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Business Partnerships: The Connected Women Leadership Forum is an
initiative to bring professionals from Cisco and corresponding leaders
from our customers and partners to share business practices and learn
from each other to build a stronger ecosystem in the industry.
Recruitment: The „Girls in Technology‟ program focuses primarily on
building an interest in technology among female college students.
Professional Development: The Powered Development Sessions is an
open event for all employees, giving them an opportunity to hone their
technical and soft skills. Panel discussions, seminars, networking
events like International Women‟s Day celebration have helped build a
strong network among employees at Cisco. The CCW website and
WIKI are key initiatives to sustain the growth and success of this
human network.
The Mentoring Program & Executive Shadowing helps in connecting
junior women employees with senior managers and executives for
focused mentoring sessions on career development at Cisco.
Critical Success Factors
 A clear framework for vision, strategy, execution and metrics for this
employee resource group
 Alignment with business objectives
 Visible support from senior management
 Dedicated team of volunteers
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About Cisco
Cisco is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Today, networks
are an essential part of business, education, government and home
communications, and Cisco Internet Protocol-based (IP) networking solutions
are the foundation of these networks. Cisco hardware, software, and service
offerings are used to create Internet solutions that allow individuals,
companies, and countries to increase productivity, improve customer
satisfaction and strengthen competitive advantage. The Cisco name has
become synonymous with the Internet, as well as with the productivity
improvements that Internet business solutions provide. At Cisco, our vision is
to change the way people work, live, play and learn.
Cisco was founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from
Stanford University. Since the company's inception, Cisco engineers have
been leaders in the development of Internet Protocol (IP)- based networking
technologies. Today, with employees and development spread worldwide,
the tradition of innovation continues with industry-leading products in the
core areas of routing and switching, as well as advanced technologies in areas
such as Home Networking, IP Telephony, Optical, Network Security, Storage
Networking and Wireless LAN.
Cisco India Pvt. Ltd. commenced operations in 1995. With sales and
marketing operations spread across 7 key cities in India - New Delhi,
Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata and Hyderabad and a Global
Development Centre in Bangalore (largest outside of the US), Cisco
dominates the networking market in core technologies of routing and
switching, as well as WLAN and network security. The total India headcount
is over 7000 employees, including R&D, sales and business support staff.
In October 2007, Cisco opened operations in India at the new Globalization
Centre Campus, which was inaugurated by Cisco‟s Chief Executive Officer
Mr. John Chambers and the honorable former President Dr. Abdul Kalam.
The centre also includes a state of the art Global Briefing Centre with the
latest technologies from Cisco on display including the award winning Cisco
Telepresence Systems.
For more information please refer to http://www.cisco.com
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