At a time when Cisco has embarked on ‘Project IndiaG’ to double its India revenues to $2 billion by FY 2018 especially, from country transformational projects such as Smart Cities, a key top executive who specialises in Smart Cities Consulting has exited the company.
Aamer Azeemi, Managing Director of Cisco’s consulting services for the APJC Emerging Markets and Head of IoE (Internet of Everything) practice, APJC, logged into Cisco for the last time on February 22, after a 7.5 year stint.
Interestingly, Azeemi was part of the team who witnessed the birth of “intelligent urbanisation” that was later branded as Smart + Connected Communities (S+CC), under the leadership of Chief Globalisation Officer, Wim Elfrink.
In his role as head of consulting for APJC, Azeemi led a team of senior consultants to advise governments, cities and large real estate developers to effectively leverage technology to improve social, economic and environmental sustainability.
He worked with Cisco’s customers to help them unlock their assets and realise value from connecting the unconnected – people, process, data and things by using appropriate technology innovations in all verticals that encompass a city, including healthcare, education, physical safety and security.
In a parting email to his fellow colleagues, Azeemi said, “It has been a fun and learning filled 7.5 years in which I have learnt a lot, made a whole lot of new friends and truly enjoyed each and every day in the bargain. I have seen a lot during this time – from having the privilege to be in the room witnessing the birth of ‘intelligent urbanisation’ which later morphed into Smart + Connected Communities which is now a force of its own, thanks to its early architects and the ones who have now taken it to the next level. I feel proud today when I see Cisco being synonymous with Smart Cities in India, since I had a small role to play in that, early on.”
Cisco Systems India has witnessed a series of top management exits over the last 16 months with the exits of Raghunandan Kadambi, Managing Director of Services Sales; Sanjay Mathur, Vice President – Global Technology Centres; and Rajesh Rege, Country Head of Data Centre and Cloud Business.
Last month, Pankaj Patel, Executive Vice-President and Chief Development Officer of Cisco, based in the US, decided to step down from his role in the second half of this calendar year.