Cisco appoints Ben Dawson as ANZ vice president

Cisco has appointed Ben Dawson as its new vice president for Australia and New Zealand, taking over from Ken Boal.

Dawson will start his new role in January 2021, and has been tasked to lead all aspects of the networking giant's Australia and New Zealand business. Outgoing ANZ VP Ken Boal recently moved to Cisco’s APJC business, leading its software and services function.

Dawson returns from the US after a five-year stint at Cisco, last working as vice president of webscale sales, where he managed the vendor’s relationship with other tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Facebook and more.

"I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the most innovative companies that have transformed not only how we think about technology, but how it can be applied to transform industries and entire economies,” Dawson said.

“Exploiting these shifts presents a real opportunity for organisations in Australia & New Zealand to find new sources of differentiation at a global scale. The network has never been more important in enabling a hybrid approach to cloud and software. Supporting our customers to continue to accelerate their digital-first strategies with speed, security and agility will be key.”

“I’m excited to return home and apply the experience gained from Silicon Valley to accelerate the adoption of Cisco’s new innovations in support of our customers’ digitisation efforts. Australia and New Zealand have a great history of innovation across industry and government and I look forward to leading the Cisco Australia & New Zealand team in its next chapter.”

Dawson has been with Cisco from at least 2006, according to his LinkedIn profile, working in various sales and leadership roles in Australia, including managing director of the Telstra Business Unit from 2010 to 2015, before moving to the US that year.

Prior to joining Cisco, Dawson also worked in various sales roles for system integrators and telcos across Australia.