Today the Chief Development Officer at Cisco Systems, Inc. Mario Mazzola visited VivaCell-MTS headquarters to give a lecture on “Innovations in Data Center Networking” for the representatives of the IT sphere of Armenia and the awardees of the 2014 RA President’s education award in the IT sphere. He is on a visit to Armenia to receive the prestigious Global Award of the President of the Republic of Armenia for Outstanding Contribution to Humanity through IT 2014 (Global IT Award 2014). The awarding ceremony will take place on November 12, 2014 at the Presidential Office.

 

Before the lecture intended for a narrow circle of IT specialists Mario Mazzola, VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Global Award of the President of the Republic of Armenia for Outstanding Contribution to Humanity through IT Hovik Musaelyan, and the President of the "Viasphere International Tony Moroyan gave a joint press conference.

 

VivaCell-MTS supports projects aimed at developing sustainable solutions in the IT sphere as a key factor in boosting Armenia’s competitive advantage. For the fifth time the Company undertakes the sponsorship of this important award encouraging the development of the IT sphere in Armenia.

 

VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian who is also a member of the selection board, mentioned in his welcome address: “On behalf of VivaCell-MTS I would like to greet Mario Mazzola for his outstanding contribution in the IT sphere and express deep gratitude for his readiness to meet with the IT community of Armenia, students and VivaCell-MTS employees. Armenia is a land of talents. There is no greater reward in life than making our dream come true, seeing the strong potential of Armenia revealed. The opportunity of communicating with you will allow us drawing the route to our dream more accurately.”

 

“It is a fact that the competitive advantage of Armenia is connected with the ICT sphere and this prestigious and ambitious award is a vivid proof of that. The giants of the high-tech sphere come to Armenia, increasing the awareness about our country as one that relies on its intellectual potential,” said chairman of the Executive Board of the Global IT Award Hovik Musaelyan.

 

“The history knows few people that had the vision, conviction and opportunity to create technologies that resulted in considerable, paradigmatic changes in the IT sphere, thus having a positive impact on our lives. Mario Mazzola is one of those rare world-known individuals. It owes to his guidance that Cisco keeps the position of the leader and transforms the networking industry at the global level,” said member of the selection board of the Global IT Award Tony Moroyan.

 

The Global Award of the President of Armenia for Outstanding Contribution to Humanity through IT was established on June 6, 2009, by the decree of the President of Armenia with the aim of supporting the development of this sphere. The award is granted on an annual basis to individuals, which have made an exceptional contribution in the spheres of technologies, education, organization, finances, etc., and whose internationally acclaimed efforts result in serious development of the information technologies sphere.

 

Mario Mazzola is the fifth Global IT Award Laureate. The president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, Society of Semiconductor Industry Specialists, and Techno Vision Company, retired CEO of Hitachi Electronic Devices Group and Senior Executive Managing Director of Hitachi Tsugio Makimoto is the fourth laureate of the award. Previous laureates include Ex-Chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation Craig Barrett, Co-Founder of Apple Computers, Inc. Steve Wozniak, and the Chairman Emeritus of Sinaptics, Inc. Federico Faggin.

 

VivaCell-MTS…You are connected!

 

Welcome to VivaCell-MTS network with your phone number!

 

Mario Mazzola

SVP/GM for INSBU, Cisco Systems

 

Mario Mazzola serves as Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Insieme Business Unit at Cisco. The Insieme team is building next generation Data Center solutions with its Software Defined Networking vision – Application Centric Infrastructure – and is responsible for Cisco’s Merchant and Merchant Plus Switching Portfolio, including the Nexus 3000 and 9000 portfolios. Prior the Cisco acquisition of Insieme in November 2013, Mario served as Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder of Insieme Networks, Inc.  As a 21-year veteran of Cisco, Mario’s guiding principles are communication, trust, fairness, and creating a challenging environment with an opportunity for growth.

 

Prior to Insieme, Mario served as Senior Vice President of the Server Access Virtualization Technology Group at Cisco Systems, where he led the team to grow Cisco’s portfolio of Data Center access and virtualization solutions to a multi-billion dollar business, garnering the #1 spot in US market share and #2 in Europe. The business began with the acquisition of Nuova Systems - a company co-founded and led by Mario as President and CEO. Nuova Systems focused on data center transformations, building the Nexus 2K, 5K, Unified Fabric and the Unified Computing System. 

 

Prior to Nuova Systems, Mario held the position of Chief Development Officer at Cisco Systems. In this role, he was responsible for leading Cisco's overall R&D strategy and managing the entire engineering organization comprised of eleven technology groups: IOS Technologies, Internet Switching & Services, Core Routing, Network Management Services, Optical, Storage, Voice, Aggregation, Access, Ethernet Access and Wireless.  In addition to these roles, Mario served as Senior Vice President of New Business Ventures and Senior Vice President of the Enterprise Line of Business at Cisco Systems. 

 

As the Senior VP of New Business Ventures, he was responsible for heading the incubation effort to explore new technologies that aligned and promoted Cisco's business strategies. Under his leadership and guidance, Cisco acquired all major companies that, along with Crescendo, became the foundation for Cisco’s multi-billion dollar switching business, including Kalpana, Granite, and Grand Junction. As the Senior Vice President of the Enterprise Line of Business, he helped guide Cisco's strategies for providing global end-to-end solutions and the convergence of data, voice, and video. 

 

Prior to his tenure at Cisco, Mario was co-founder and served as the President and CEO of Crescendo. During a 3-year period, he helped grow Crescendo's revenues to a run rate of approximately $15 million. Post-acquisition, Crescendo became the Workgroup Business Unit at Cisco, with Mario serving as Vice President and General Manager. Mario also served as co-founder and Vice President of Engineering of David Systems, a company focused on integrating PBX technology (voice) with local area networking technology (data). 

 

Mario holds a Master’s of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Bologna University in Bologna, Italy. He pioneered switching and is a recognized visionary and leader in the networking and communications industry. He holds several patents on networking-related technologies, including data transmissions, integration of voice and data, transport of voice over Ethernet, and memory extensions on UCS.

 

  -   Science and Technology