Just a final step from the technology industry's summit, Don Listwin did an about-face -- so he could begin his climb all over again.
Mr. Listwin, the No. 2 executive at data networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. was -- and maybe still is -- widely considered to be the heir apparent to John Chambers, the San Jose, Calif.-based company's chief executive officer. But Mr. Listwin, 41, a Saskatoon native who has become one of the industry's most famous Canadians, decided not to wait for Mr. Chambers to step down.
Mr. Listwin quit his prominent, high-profile job last month as Cisco's executive vice-president in favour of the CEO job at Phone.com Inc. of Redwood City, Calif., a startup that makes wireless Internet equipment. He started his new job last week.
Cisco is a minority stakeholder in Phone.com.
While his decade at Cisco has made him wealthy enough that he can ignore the financial ramifications of any turns in his professional life, Mr. Listwin's move was seen by some as a major surprise. He left the No. 2 position at one of the world's biggest and most-admired technology companies for a startup that will have to fight it out in a crowded market to succeed, or even survive.
But risk is nothing new to Mr. Listwin, who has been working in the United States since the mid-1980s. When he joined Cisco in 1990 as employee number 291, the data networking equipment maker was in a tough four-way battle with Cabletron Systems Inc., 3Com Corp. and Bay Networks Inc. in a nascent, uncertain niche. Cisco won that battle as well as many others and has now branched out to become one of the world's leading suppliers of telecommunications equipment.
Although he insists his move to Cisco was more luck than vision, Mr. Listwin saw enough opportunity with the fledgling firm to take a 50-per-cent pay cut to sign on.
As with the move to Cisco, the move away is mostly to do with being able to build something special, he says. "This is just a great opportunity. This is something I've been thinking about for a long time."
While some analysts and other industry watchers have questioned if there was a falling out between Cisco's top two executives, Mr. Listwin remains a Cisco loyalist -- and shareholder -- with nothing but rave reviews about his former employer and Mr. Chambers.
Dan McLean, a network analyst at IDC (Canada) Ltd. in Toronto, says he believes Mr. Listwin was probably growing a little weary being part of -- but not at the helm of -- what has become a huge company. "The word on the street was that he just wasn't prepared to wait it out for Mr. Chambers to leave. You can see where it might [have been]getting a little stagnant."
Cisco, which has at times this year been the world's most valuable company according to market capitalization, had revenue during the fiscal year ended July 29 of $18.9-billion (U.S.) and now has about 35,000 employees.
But Mr. Listwin, an electrical engineering graduate from the University of Saskatchewan, isn't the only key Cisco executive to leave recently. Judy Estrin, the company's former chief technology officer, and Scott Wellman, former senior vice-president, have also left in recent months.
Mr. McLean, however, says Mr. Listwin, known as a dynamic executive with clear views about where he sees the future, was the biggest loss and surprise, largely because many assumed he would be Mr. Chambers' eventual successor. "His resignation was the big one -- that kind of topped everything."
But Mr. McLean says Mr. Listwin remains well regarded at Cisco and still has a shot at one day running the company. "I don't think it would be a reach at all to hear Don Listwin's name come up when the time comes. I still think he'll get his opportunity even if he's not with Cisco."
And if Mr. Listwin never gets a shot at the top job at Cisco, Mr. McLean says, he'll still have plenty of other opportunities with just about any other company he chooses. "I think he can pretty well write his own ticket."
Although startups always run a greater risk of collapse than more established players, Mr. McLean says, Mr. Listwin's bet on the company is a good sign it has excellent prospects. "It's probably not a huge risk -- I'm sure he [has]done his homework."
Although he says he has no plans to move back to Canada, Mr. Listwin remains one of this country's biggest technology industry stars, in the same league as John Roth, CEO of Nortel Networks Corp. of Brampton, Ont.; Terence Matthews, co-founder of Mitel Corp. and founder of Newbridge Networks Corp., both of Kanata, Ont.; and expatriate Robert Young, the top executive of Red Hat Inc. of Durham, N.C.
And even with Mr. Listwin's departure, Cisco remains the Silicon Valley star perhaps most likely to host a National Hockey League-style rotisserie pool within its executive ranks.
Other Canadians in the company's corridors of power in recent years have included former Newbridge executive Jim Marshall and Gordon Astles, who runs the company's operations in the Americas.