Shawn Shafai is a Data Center Specialist and subject matter expert in the Business of IT, Data Center, Network and Security topic areas.
He is a 16 year veteran of Cisco IT and his most recent role was that of Regional CIO and IT Advisor, engaging in dozens of speaking engagements with customers every quarter and sharing the “Cisco on Cisco” story. He was also Cisco’s dedicated IT Advisor to American Express, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, Symantec, and Thomson Reuters corporations. Key to Shawn’s role was to ensure that best practices, challenges and lessons learned were shared with customers to accelerate their technology adoption and create more value for their organizations.
Prior to his Regional CIO role, Shawn led Cisco’s Global Network Organization, responsible for delivering all aspects of global network services to over 130,000 users via campuses & branch offices networks, data center networks, internet infrastructures, and the global WAN backbone.
From 1999 through 2008, Shawn held a variety of leadership, program management and technical roles within Cisco IT. During this time, he executed on large initiatives, such as deployment of Cisco’s first large-scale B2B web portal, network convergence of data and voice and then video, creation of an enterprise-class global extranet service, and the build-out of Cisco’s next generation data centers and private cloud.
Before Cisco and spanning a 25 year career in technology, Shawn held roles at Ciber, Xerox, and several start-up ventures in Silicon Valley. Shawn is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts and of San Jose State University with a Masters of Business Administration.
Personal interests for Shawn revolve around time outdoors with his wife, the main passions being rock climbing and surfing. Shawn also enjoys spending time with family, cooking and enjoying fine food, a passion for music as an audiophile and is an avid reader on a wide range of topics.
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