Cisco Systems Inc. said Chief Executive John Chambers will step down this summer as head of the networking company, after 20 years in the post, and named sales executive Chuck Robbins to succeed him.
Mr. Chambers’s departure as CEO, effective July 26, will end the tenure of one of Silicon Valley’s best-known executives and one of its longest-serving CEOs who wasn’t a founder of the company. He built Cisco into the world’s largest provider of routers, switches and other equipment that provides vital plumbing for the Internet and helped fuel the extraordinary growth of the Web.
Mr. Chambers, 65 years old, will become Cisco’s executive chairman. In that position, the company said, he will support Mr. Robbins, work with the company’s customers and take a leading role in helping countries digitize their operations.
