**Editor’s Note: Click here to see which channel people were on the move in April and May.**

By Edward Gately

Some IT industry analysts are giving thumbs up to Cisco’s new executive leadership team, announced this week by incoming CEO Chuck Robbins.

Robbins moved quickly to unveil the new team just days after Gary Moore, president and COO, and Rob Lloyd, president of development and sales, announced they will be leaving the company on July 25. Other top executives also are on their way out.

The new leadership team is smaller, and includes a mix of executives remaining in their existing roles or taking on new positions, as well as one new executive from outside Cisco coming on board.

Tim Zimmerman, research vice president at Gartner, told Channel Partners that the changes were not unexpected, and the transition from outgoing CEO John Chambers to Robbins should go smoothly.

“Chuck has a strong sales background that is similar to John’s, and John’s guidance will continue as chairman,” he said. “Chuck’s top priority has been to meet with customers, internal leadership and shareholders to make sure that they are continuing to execute against their strategy and working with clients towards their desired business outcomes.”

It will be important for the new executive team to maintain the existing momentum while addressing hurdles that have been impeding additional growth, Zimmerman said.

“As part of these discussions, we feel that Chuck will need to focus internally to review product opportunities and business strategies that help clients migrate from existing Cisco solutions to new innovations,” he said.

Christian Renaud, senior analyst, networking, at 451 Research, said one of Chambers’ strengths was to “build a strong bench of leaders, which also had the unfortunate effect of a fair bit of bench-rivalry.”

“Mr. Robbins is restructuring around key areas (development, sales, ops) with internally well-respected people like Rebecca Jacoby, Chris Dedicoat and Pankaj Patel who have a track record of getting things done (over playing politics),” he said. “Some appointments are less obvious, like the head of M&A (Hilton Romanski) taking over a chief technology and strategy officer role (M&A at Cisco has been mostly tactical in the last decade and he is not a technologist).”

With the exception of those scheduled for July 25, all leadership changes are effective immediately.