Cisco chief scores $2 million bonus

John Chambers, CEO of Cisco

Cisco's chief executive has received a hefty $2 million (1.2 million) bonus for his efforts at the company this year despite it posting losses and cutting thousands of staff.

John Chambers, chairman and chief executive of the networking firm, was one of six executives to receive what the company called an "incentive payment" detailed in a filing to the US Security and Exchange Commission.

The filing said: "The Committee considered the Company's solid financial performance during a period of tough economic challenges, and each individual's key role in driving operational excellence and strong profitability."

It also pointed out these payments were "significantly lower" than cash incentives given out in the more successful 2008 fiscal year.

However, results from the firm in August showed a 46 per cent drop in net income from the same period last year, falling from $2 billion to $1.1 billion, as well as job cuts of 2,000 globally.

Other payments included $1 million to Wim Elfrink, chief globalisation officer and $900,000 to both Frank Calderoni, chief financial officer, and Randy Pond, operations, processes and systems executive.

IT PRO contacted Cisco but a spokesperson from the company couldn't provide more information than was on the filing document.

Visit IT PRO's sister title Channel Pro for news, in-depth analysis and industry comment aimed at distributors, resellers and anyone else working in the IT channel.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.