Cisco Says Goodbye to Security Sales Leader, Hires Proofpoint Alum

A key Cisco security sales leader is departing amid division-wide changes.

Shelly Blackburn, vice president of the Cisco global security sales specialist organization, is reportedly stepping down. The Information originally reported Blackburn’s exit. She cited “personal reasons” in an internal email obtained by the news outlet.

Shelly Blackburn

Raj Chopra, who formerly was Proofpoint’s vice president of product management, will be joining Cisco. His appointment comes amid a security product team restructuring that Cisco internally announced on Tuesday, according to The Information.

Cisco formed the global security sales specialist organization in 2015.

Blackburn had logged 22 years at Cisco. She came to the company as a consulting systems engineer for voice after working at Siemens. At one point she served as senior director of business development sales and engineering for Cisco’s Americas partner organization.

Cloudflare last week announced that it hired former Cisco sales exec Carlos Torales Montero as vice president and head of Latin American sales. He had been Cisco’s managing director of sales for the small business segment.

Cisco last week shared anecdotes from customer trials it is running for a new predictive networking solution.

Rumors swirled earlier this year that Cisco might buy Splunk in a transaction that would put it atop the cybersecurity market, but no such deal has gone through.