Wim Elfrink, EVP, Industry Solutions & Chief Globalisation Officer at Cisco Systems Inc., is responsible for three global functions at Cisco: Cisco’s Industry Solutions Group, Emerging Countries Initiatives as well as the company’s globalisation strategy.
Elfrink joined Cisco in 1997 assuming global responsibility for Cisco Services Europe. In 2000, he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Cisco Services where under his leadership business grew from $3.3 billion to more than $7.6 billion in 2010 with industry-leading margins and customer satisfaction.
In 2006, Elfrink was appointed Chief Globalisation Officer and was named Executive Vice President a year later. He went on to establish Cisco’s Globalisation Centre East (GCE) in Bangalore, India. Over four years, Elfrink grew the GCE to be an innovation hub and to be company’s smartest and most sustainable campus offering globally scaled solutions. During this time, Elfrink chaired the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Steering Committee on Intelligent Urbanization, which in 2010 recommended a Framework for Sustainable Urbanization for India.
Today, Elfrink is recognised as Cisco’s Corporate Entrepreneur in residence and is responsible for driving the next era of the internet known as “The Internet of Everything” (IoE) and “The Internet of Things” (IoT). Addressing emerging countries that are experiencing significant economic, social and environmental change are part of his global charter aimed at transforming physical communities to connected communities (Smart + Connected Communities – S+CC) using network centric innovation to enable sustainability. Today, there are greater than 90+ S+CC projects around the world.
An officer of the company, Elfrink is also a board member of the US India Business Council, a member of the Silatech Board in Qatar, the New Cities Foundation Board and the Chongqing Mayor’s International Economic Advisory Group. In 2009 Daily News & Analysis, a leading Indian newspaper, named Elfrink one of Bangalore’s 50 Most Influential People, one of 12 from the corporate world and the only non-Indian to be featured. In 2013, he was the recipient of the Ambassador C. Howard Wilkins, Jr. Award from the Netherlands-America Foundation.
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