Bangalore: Naresh Wadhwa has been appointed president and country manager of Cisco India and SAARC region. He will report directly to Owen Chan, Cisco''s president, Asia Pacific Operations.

Wadhwa has been with Cisco for almost 10 years and was most recently based in Hong Kong heading the marketing organisation in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to this, he was responsible for channels, commercial, sales operations and marketing across North Asia based out of Hong Kong.

An industry veteran with over 18 years of experience in the technology industry, joined Cisco India in 1998 as a sales manager for the company''s enterprise, commercial and IT services business, and successfully grew the business four-fold. Subsequently, Naresh architected several strategic wins for Cisco when he managed the Service Provider business in India. Prior to Cisco, Naresh worked with 3Com Asia Ltd and Wipro Infotech in India.

"We are very pleased that Naresh will assume the role of President for India and SAARC Operations," said Mr. Chan. "A long-time Cisco veteran, Naresh''s impressive and diverse skills are suited to this important leadership role. India is a very strategic market for Cisco and Naresh is the right leader to steer our team in accelerating the growth momentum in India."