Cisco CEO John Chambers Statement on Marc Benioff

Today, Cisco filed an 8K with the SEC on our board of directors composition which stated the following:

“The Board of Directors (the “Board”) of Cisco Systems, Inc. (“Cisco”), upon recommendation by the Nomination and Governance Committee of the Board, has nominated each of the current directors for election, and each has decided to stand for re-election at the 2014 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, with the exception of Marc Benioff, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of salesforce.com, inc., who on September 8, 2014 had notified Cisco and its Board of his decision not to stand for re-election at the 2014 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The Board has reduced the size of the Board to ten members effective at the time of the 2014 Annual Meeting of Shareholders.  Mr. Benioff will continue to serve as a director until Cisco’s 2014 Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held on November 20, 2014.”

Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers offers the following statement:

“I am extremely thankful for Marc’s service to Cisco, especially as his own company is currently enjoying hyper growth and the demands on him are enormous. His infectious passion and guiding vision are crucial for Salesforce.com. I personally asked him to join the Board as I knew that his laser focus on customers would help Cisco as we navigate through the many market transitions of cloud, mobility, security, Internet of Everything and more. His insight, experience and knowledge in software and the cloud has been invaluable to Cisco. His focus on innovation, customers and outcomes during his time on the board will continue to have positive impact on Cisco for years to come. I thank Marc for his exemplary service, and am glad he’ll be with us through November, and look forward to continuing the close relationship between Cisco and Salesforce.”