The sudden and unexplained departure of Cisco data center marketing honcho, Douglas Gourlay

Cisco's vice president of Cisco data center solutions was not seen presenting at Cisco Live last week.

Update 7/7/09: Why Douglas Gourlay left Cisco in his own words

Curiously according to a source, Douglas Gourlay - Vice President of Cisco Data Center Solutions was not seen presenting at Cisco Live last week.

That's odd because Gourlay's office is located at Cisco's nearby headquarters in San Jose. And what made it even more perplexing was that Gourlay was featured just 7 days earlier in the Cisco Data Center Networks blog story:

7 at Cisco Live

Which had Gourlay inviting guests to Cisco Live in the following video:

Obviously, something was not right and my source suggested Gourlay had left Cisco. After contacting Cisco, I received the following reply:

"As a matter of Cisco policy, the company does not discuss individual employment matters. However, we can confirm that Doug Gourlay is no longer with Cisco and we wish him well in his future endeavors."

Make no mistake about it, Douglas Gourlay is as sharp as a tack and one of the most impressive people I've ever had the honor of collaborating with on Cisco stories for my blog.

Take the Poll - Where will Doug end up?

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• Careers
• Cisco
• Data Center
• LANs / WANs
• After contacting Cisco
• As a matter of Cisco policy
• Douglas Gourlay - Vice President of Cisco Data Center Solutions
• Douglas Gourlay is as sharp as a tack and one of the most impressive people I've ever had the honor of collaborating with on Cisco stories
• Gourlay was featured just 7 days earlier in the Cisco Data Center Networks blog story
• Gourlay's office is located at Cisco's nearby headquarters in San Jose
• My source suggested Gourlay had left Cisco
• We can confirm that Doug Gourlay is no longer with Cisco and we wish him well in his future endeavors
• What's your take on why Douglas Gourlay left Cisco and where do you think he will land?
• Which had Gourlay inviting guests to Cisco Live in the following video