Major Shake Up At Cisco Consumer

As a result of the shakeup long time Cisco employee and Regional Sales Manager of the Cisco consumer division, Graeme Reardon has quit the Company as of today.

Reardon who was credited with helping to build the Cisco consumer business in Australia will be replaced by Singapore based Craig Gledhill who joined Linksys a Cisco Company in May 2007 as the Vice President of the Asia Pacific region for Cisco.

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Craig Gledhill Cisco Singapore

Internal executives at Cisco are not happy with the move. Overseas management have confirmed the move.

A senior executive in a major retailer who has recently expanded the sale of Cisco consumer products in their stores said "It has been proved in the past that Companies who have good local management on the ground in Australia, do better than remote controlled operations from overseas. This type of business is normally associated with struggling Companies and Cisco is not a struggling Company. A classic example is Creative Technology. They are now trying to run their business in Australia from Singapore and they are struggling".

"I believe that Cisco should seriously reconsider this move as dealing with a distributor is not like dealing with a direct subsidiary. It also sends out the wrong message to the Channel".

"Reardon who was well known and liked in the Channel will be missed" they said.

Under the new structure all Cisco consumer departments and sales operations, which includes retail, distribution, online retail, VAR channels and the implementation of go to market plans will be controlled out of Singapore.