Cisco's Race Is On: 12 Potential John Chambers Successors

Padmasree Warrior

Current role: CTO and Chief Strategy Officer, Cisco

As Cisco celebrities go, Warrior's exposure to the industry is second only to Chambers'. Earlier this year, Warrior moved out of her position as co-lead of Cisco's engineering organization and succeeded Ned Hooper as chief strategy officer, a role Chambers in no uncertain terms told CRN, "she's really good at."

She's been at Cisco since 2007, when in a big-splash move, she was wooed and then pried away from Motorola. Could Warrior be the next powerful woman in tech to join Meg Whitman, Ginni Rometty, Marissa Mayer and Ursula Burns in the tier-one C-suite?