Tessel currently serves as executive vice president and chief technology officer of financial software company Intuit, a role she’s held since January 2019. She also previously served as chief product development officer of Intuit's small business & self-employed group.
Prior to joining Intuit, Tessel served as senior vice president of engineering and executive vice president of strategic development for Docker Inc, a software containerisation platform. She has also served as vice president of engineering with VMware.
"We are excited to welcome Marianna to the Cisco Board. Marianna is known for creating a strong, transformational culture that accelerates innovation,” said Chuck Robbins, chairman and CEO, Cisco.
“Her successful track record delivering software solutions that solve challenges for businesses of all sizes will help shape Cisco's strategy for supporting our customers as they leverage digital capabilities to drive recovery and growth."
Tessel joins existing Cisco board members including: M. Michele Burns, Wesley G. Bush, Michael D. Capellas, Mark Garrett, John D. Harris II, Dr. Kristina M. Johnson, Roderick C. McGeary, Chuck Robbins, Brenton L. Saunders and Dr. Lisa Su.
In related news, earlier this month Cisco topped the market for software-defined wide-area networks, according to research from the Dell’Oro group.
The findings showed that there was 50% growth was the fourth quarter of 2020 compared with the same quarter of 2019. Cisco held the biggest market share followed by VMware, Fortinet, Versa and HPE/Silver Peak.
