| Padmasree Warrior | |
|---|---|
| Born | Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India |
| Alma mater | Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Cornell University |
| Employer | Cisco Systems |
| Title | Chief Technology Officer |
| Board member of | Joffrey Ballet Museum of Science and Industry |
| Spouse | Mohandas Warrior |
| Children | Karna Warrior |
Padmasree Warrior is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Cisco Systems, and the former CTO of Motorola, Inc.
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Padmasree Warrior, was born a Telugu and raised in the city of Vijayawada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, India. She went to school at the Children’s Montessori School and Maris Stella College in Vijayawada. Warrior received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1982. She holds masters in chemical engineering from Cornell University and serves as an advisory board member at both schools.
Padmasree Warrior joined Motorola in 1984, as one of only a few women in its Arizona facility. Over the course of her 23 years at the company, serving in a broad range of roles, including as Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Motorola’s Energy Systems Group, and as Corporate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer in its Semiconductor Products Sector, which later became Freescale Semiconductor. Immediately prior to becoming Motorola’s CTO, she served as general manager of Thoughtbeam, a wholly owned Motorola subsidiary chartered to commercialize Motorola’s GaAs on silicon technology that was developed at the Physical Sciences Research Laboratory in Tempe, Arizona. This position was short-lived, however, because the Thoughtbeam technology was found to be based on erroneous measurements[1]. Her promotion to CTO after this failed venture has been called a "Dilbert moment" by observers in the technology industry[2]. When named Motorola's CTO in January 2003, Warrior became a senior vice president [3] and in 2005 she was promoted to executive vice president. [4]
During Warrior’s tenure as CTO, Motorola was awarded the 2004 National Medal of Technology by the President of the United States, the first time the company had received this honor. During this period she was a profound proponent of "Seamless Mobility" - the concept of having seamless communication across all facets of a person's life. The dream was not fully realized and the concept was eventually dropped from Motorola marketing presentations. She also is known for criticizing, in her blog "Bits on my Edge"[5], the Apple iPhone, which later became a huge success in the cell phone industry[6].
On December 4, 2007, she left Motorola to become CTO at Cisco Systems.
Fortune Magazine called her one of four rising stars on its Most Powerful Women list,[7] placing her between the 10 "highest paid" and the "Young and Powerful" categories. In 2005, The Economic Times ranked Warrior as the 11th Most Influential Global Indian. [8] In 2001 she was one of six women nationwide selected to receive the "Women Elevating Science and Technology" award from Working Woman Magazine[9] and her achievements were further recognized by American Immigration Law Foundation in 2003.[10] In 2004, she was conferred with the Distinguished Alumni Award by Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.[11] During Warrior’s tenure as CTO, Motorola was awarded the 2004 National Medal of Technology by President George W. Bush.. In 2007 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by New York's Polytechnic University.
Padmasree serves on the boards of Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet and Museum of Science and Industry, the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Chicago Mayor’s Technology Council, Cornell University Engineering Council and advisory council of Indian Institute of Technology. She previously served on the Texas Governor's Council for Digital Economy, the Technology Advisory Council for the FCC and on the Advisory Committee for the Computing and Information Science and Engineering of the National Science Foundation (NSF). She is also serving as a mentor in the State Department’s International Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership. Padmasree also served on the Board of Directors at Corning, New York based specialty glassware maker Corning Incorporated from 2005 through 2008.