I recently retired from Cisco and (a few weeks after my oldest child’s marriage, visiting with family from near and far), I find myself with a few extra quiet moments to reflect on what has been a great 40+ year career in IT and Networking. The people I met along the way made the wins and losses memorable, I’m forever grateful to them. Above all, I could not have done it without the balance, support, and motivation provided by my family: Diane, Mitch, and Amie, who to this day have no idea what I actually did for a living. Maybe this will help 😀

1st Half – I.T. Guy

The first half journey was in IT, where I was fortunate enough to start in a small family-owned commercial real estate management software company in NJ. They wrote their own mini-computer operating system based on CP/M & MP/M and software, as a field engineer I was responsible for customer support, assembling the systems that consisted of an S100-BUS, a Z80 Processor, and various interface cards, including the Phoenix computer controller to communicate with Control Data Center Drives. All in all, about half the size of a modern refrigerator. The great benefit of a do-it-all shop is that if you’re around as long as I was (7 years), I got to do a little of everything, including my first exposure to managing people, programming, and networking by way of DECnet.

Being exposed to the IBM PC, DOS, Lotus 1-2-3, and Wordperfect sparked my imagination in ways I never thought I had in me. Upon purchasing my first computer, which I believe was a Wyse 286, a dual floppy-drive beast. I really got into software and taught myself how to write Wordperfect (WP) macros, which were the rage of every business office I walked into at the time.

My wife, who worked in pharmaceutical research at the time met a lady that was starting a Contract Research Organization and in need of my then set of IT skills to connect her growing team across the country. This was the excuse I needed to start a computer consulting business of my own. I made a few dollars selling WP macros and enjoyed the feedback loop of coding.

While enjoying the success of my independent business, I quickly realized that I did not want to grow beyond a one-man shop. I really disliked having to promote my business and wanted to focus on the fun technical bits. At about this time, we had our second child and it was time to get real about growing the business or getting a steady job. That meant working for my first and largest client at the time, whose business was booming. I taught myself Borland Paradox Database’s PAL language and created a Time and Expense application. Beyond the odd WP macro, this was my real first exposure to programming. I enjoyed programming so much that I couldn’t put it down. For the sake of my marriage and career, I had to stop and hired a real programmer.

A few years later, that business was sold and I found myself looking for my next challenge. Luckily, I found a startup company in Allentown, PA doing data over Cable TV, prior to DOCSIS. We sold our own head-end gear to Cable TV providers, gave away 1-Way Cable Modems to every subscriber and the upstream was open-access dial-up. The advent of 2-Way Cable and Net Neutrality court battles going on at the time meant that we had to pivot our business to focus on was then a small feature of our cable service – Bandwidth management.

Co-creating a Bandwidth Control System; is where I really got to learn and appreciate TCP/IP networking. I was part of a 5 person team, and to this day…still, the most fun I ever had at work creating a product. Business was good for a while, selling to Internet Service Providers around the world, and growing. Alas, partnering with the wrong sales and marketing company in Ottawa, Canada was our demise. Long story short – at the end of September 2001, the company shut down and 30 of us were out of work.

Out of work for 8 Months. A provider type suddenly being unable to do so, led me to dark places. Luckily, my wife got me through it by reminding me of what is really important in life.

A consulting gig and another software startup got my career kick-started. Little did I know then that the best was yet to come.

2nd Half – Networking Guy

At this point, I began to actively seek employment opportunities in Networking as a way to evolve and learn new things.

I got hired at a software and hardware mobile VPN company in Bethlehem, PA, and soon was looking after their largest customer Cox Communications. While the mobile VPN product was cool, it was an architectural house of cards, leading to some serious service problems for our customers. It was during these trying times that I realized that I was pretty good at advocating for my customers, but I enjoyed the outcomes for both customers and employers. This led to several promotions, to the point where I was leading a nationwide team of Systems Engineers. I loved my team but hated the management bit. I wanted to stay connected to the technology and customers, but not manage people.

It is during this period that I first got exposed to various Wireless technologies and Wi-Fi design. I liked it, but it was a very small part of my team’s role.

Long story short, we took our largest competitor to court for patent infringement. Upon winning our case the two boards ultimately decided to merge and create a single company that still exists today called NetMotion Wireless.

I was having a ton of fun and success at NetMotion Wireless when out of the blue someone from Cisco called me asking if I was interested in doing Controller-based Wireless for Cisco. To this day, I can’t believe that I almost said no. Big thanks to Cisco’s Chris Bogdon, (with whom I had worked before) for insisting I come to Cisco, and to Alvin Da Costa for taking a chance on me.

I started out as only the second channel organization Wireless SE. Paul Marsh was the first. Soon, thereafter Mario Martinez and Darren Douglas joined the team from within. This became what I still consider the best team I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. We complimented each other perfectly and remain close friends to this day. Here’s a picture of what I call the dream team and lots of our partners still refer to as the four horsemen.

We worked hard on behalf of Cisco and our partners; and had a ton of fun together.

If asked, I told anyone that I was a Partner advocate first and foremost, as that is what I’m most proud of accomplishing while at Cisco. Internally I was tough on Cisco, luckily Cisco is a great company that I would recommend to anyone.

I worked there 16+ years and am proud of and thankful for a lot. Here are a few highlights:

1) Started the first-ever Partner Community in 2007. This eventually led to what you may know today as the partner side of communities.cisco.com. Thanks, Mike Glew for the encouragement to keep going, and Steve Lilley for providing early feedback.

2) In 2010, I partnered with Jim Florwick (legend) to deliver the first High-Density Design Summit. We brought the best of the best from our advanced services team and especially our partners together. Three days of awesomely detailed Wireless design discussion and tours of the Ridgefield, OH, facility. Fried Niehaus (legend) went out of his way to provide several detailed tours of the design and testing labs – a big hit.

In 2014, it was time to get the High-Density Design Summit band back together due to popular demand. We ended up spending a day at the Quicken Arena in Cleveland to speak to the IT and Media Directors, and finally watching LeBron’s second home game post his return to the CAVS. The rest of the time was spent back in Ridgefield, Ohio where we first explored a new building specifically designed to test and validate high-client density, got an early demo of Cisco Hyperlocation, and yes, Fred Niehaus was yet again an awesome host and tour guide.

3) Started what is now known as the TAC Time Series in 2011 with Aaron Leonard, Darren Douglas, and Lisa Bacani. At the time we called it Wireless TAC Tips.

4) Proudly almost got fired in 2015 for relaying to Cisco management how much Converged Access and the then-newly acquired Meraki GTM model were impacting our partner’s ability to compete. We brought our five largest partners to the mothership to hear from them directly. By saying all that I had been saying internally for months, these partners unknowingly saved my job and I’m forever grateful.

5) Thirteen-year member of the Mobility Technology Advisory Group (MTAG), a worldwide group of Cisco wireless experts whose role is to consult with our product teams early in and throughout a product’s lifecycle to provide balanced feedback. As the voice for our partners, I got to know and befriend lots of experts I admired from afar. This team continues to do tremendous work thanks to the stewardship of Jay Pitcher, and Ian Procyk.

6) My love affair with the Wireless Partner Virtual Team and what is known today as the Enterprise Networking Partner VT (PVT) began very early in my Cisco career. The PVT is a bi-annual event where 200-300 Cisco partners come to the Cisco campus in San Jose, CA to learn about our new architectures, products and solutions, and related roadmap. Sadly, due to the COVID pandemic, these became virtual events and in my humble opinion lost a big chunk of their value.

As the years rolled by, I became more and more involved with the planning and delivery of these events and made it my mission to ensure partners got what they came for without vague or bullshit answers. Now retired, these in-person events are what I miss the most from my tenure at Cisco.

Behind the scenes, in planning and preparing for these events I had the great pleasure of working with lots of great Cisco employees, but the following rock stars are those I will never forget, due to their dedication to the partner cause:

• The Channel team
  
  • Paul Marsh, Mario Martinez, Darren Douglas, Travis Ollom, Sharon Bellizzi, Bill Wasielewski, and many many more…
    

• The Product Management and TME Teams
  
  • Sujit Ghosh (the BE ringleader and best friend our partners have within the PM halls at Cisco), Jim Florwick, Fred Niehaus, Paul Nguyen, Darryl Sladden, Greg Dorai, and Carl Solder.
    
    

Ultimately, the PVT was for our outstanding resellers (Partners) and supporting vendors. While I got to befriend hundreds, these are the folks that come to mind as I write this for lots of reasons including quality time at On the Border, Michi Sushi, and especially the Milpitas, CA Crown Plaza bar in no particular order:

• Sam Clements, Stew Goumans, James DiGangi, Stewart Loftis, Steve Lilley, Dave Benham, Harel Zahavi, Kerry Kulp, Eric Trout, Charles “Kit” Johnston, Jason Boyers, Mark Hinrichs, Dennis Holmes, Jake Snyder, Jennifer Huber, Carter Burke, Chris Marco, Brian “Smitty” Smith, Jason Rinaldi, Ray Montoya, Ed Carmody, Justin Bodie, Bryce Floyd, Ed Hurley, Andrew Pennington, Jeff Hunt, Nir Wittenberg, Tom Tuttle, Jussi Kiviniemi, Sven Rasmussen, Craig Coolidge, David King, Robert Eubanks and many many more.
  

As I wrap this longer-than-expected retrospective, I’m reminded of how lucky I was to do for a living what I would have chosen for a hobby and to have worked with so many outstanding human beings and technologists. Here’s a short list of friends that perhaps unknowingly mentored me and whose examples shaped me into a better person and professional:

• Mentors: Scott Searcy, Mike Glew, Dave Lockhart, Sujit Ghosh, Andy Netburn, Mark Tyre, Eric Tschosik, Glennis Walker, Alvin Da Costa, Scott Stanton, Mike Kraus, Sam Clements, Kerry Kulp, and Stewart Loftis.
• The best managers I ever had: Tony Bouvia and Nihar Mehta.
  

To my family: I want to thank Diane, Mitch, and Amie for making my life to date the best anyone can ask for. I love you and am grateful for having you in my life.

Yes, I’m rather proud of my professional career – not bad for an immigrant without a college degree.

My advice? Put in an honest day’s work, look for opportunities to innovate, and never ever stray from your principles and the truth. My late father used to say in Portuguese what roughly translates to “If you know you’re right – fight like hell” Do that!

Now, I’m off to enjoy my hopefully long and healthy retirement and make more great memories with family and friends.

Love and Respect!

Vic