Cisco appoints new ANZ VP commits to partner success

Stefan Leitl replaces Ben Dawson as the company’s new VP of the region.

Cisco has hired Stefan Leitl as its new ANZ VP, replacing Ben Dawson who has recently stepped up to the APJC president role.

He has spent a decade with Cisco as the global VP for industrial IoT sales.

Leitl said he is deeply committed to delivering outstanding customer outcomes by harnessing the full potential of Cisco and the partner ecosystem. Leitl told CRN Australia that partners are at the heart of everything Cisco does.

“Having worked as a partner I have an understanding for what they care about, I am committed to their success and I’m glad to be working in this space in Australia and New Zealand again,” he said.

“The partner ecosystem is absolutely critical to Cisco’s success in ANZ, in which partners play a key role as the driving force behind customer outcomes.

“I am passionate about our partners, and excited to work with them on this growth journey. The partner network is the backbone of customer engagement, innovation, and growth.”

In his last role, the power of partners was critical to growth, Leitl said.

“In leading industrial IoT for Cisco globally, the success we achieved was thanks to a team effort which included a strong global partner Industrial IoT partner organisation,” he said.

“The partners in ANZ are some of the most innovative in the world, and my hope is to innovate with them together to drive a global impact for customers, their business and Cisco.”

Leitl moved to the United States in 2019 to lead a team and grow Cisco’s webscale business with Apple, Oracle, Salesforce, Netflix, Twitter, Rackspace, and Equinix.

He started with Cisco in 2011 as a product sales specialist for Cisco’s collaboration portfolio and progressed to client executive helping some of Australia’s largest companies in the financial services industry to transform and advance their digital capability.

Leitl will report to Dawson and Jessica McFadden remains the Country Leader for Cisco New Zealand. He returns to Melbourne after six years based in Silicon Valley and will begin his role in September.