Cisco Hires Juniper's Top Technologist To Lead Service Provider Networking Group

After seven years of driving the innovation engine at Juniper Networks, Jonathan Davidson is leaving for networking rival Cisco.

Davidson is joining Cisco's Service Provider business unit, as well as the company's senior leadership team, as the senior vice president and general manager of its Service Provider Networking organization.

"Jonathan drove strategy, development and business growth for Juniper's entire portfolio – including networking solutions, routing, switching, data center, cloud, and security," said Yvette Kanouff, who leads Cisco's Service Provider business, in a blog post on Monday. "He brings extensive experience in strategy and network engineering leadership as well as strong customer relationships that will serve us well."

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Davidson was previously executive vice president and general manager of Juniper Development and Innovation. He held multiple top executive positions at Juniper since 2010.

Kent MacDonald, vice president of business development at Long View Systems, a Calgary, Alberta-based Cisco Gold Partner, said onboarding Davidson validates the networking giant's technology roadmap and hopes the hire will help boost service provider sales.

"It's a great validation of Cisco's vision and technology roadmap that they were able to recruit Jonathan," said Kent McDonald. "He has a proven track record. It's great to see this addition to the Cisco leadership team."

Before Juniper, Davidson spent nearly 15 years at Cisco, including the role of director of Product Management for three years, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Davidson could not immediately be reached by CRN.

Davidson helped develop Cisco's service provider solutions during his tenure while leading the enterprise routing product management and service provider team, according to Kanouff.

"We couldn't be more excited that Jonathan joins our journey as we usher in the next generation of networking and network automation innovation," said Kanouff.

San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco reported a 1 percent yearly decline in its service provider business during its second fiscal quarter earnings call last month. For Cisco's first fiscal quarter, the company reported a 12 percent drop in service provider revenue.

Davidson will report directly to Kanouff, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Service Provider business unit.