John T. Chambers

Founder and CEO, JC2 Ventures & Former Chairman & CEO, Cisco

John Chambers is the founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures. In his role, Chambers focuses on helping disruptive startups from around the world build and scale, while also promoting the broader development of startup nations and a startup world. He invests in companies across categories and geographies that are leading market transitions, such as Aspire Food Group, Balbix, Bloom Energy, Dedrone, IoTium, OpenGov, Pindrop, Privoro, Rubrik, SparkCognition, Sprinklr, and Uniphore. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Bloom Energy, OpenGov, Pindrop, and Sprinklr.

Chambers is also the Chairman of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) and was appointed Global Ambassador of the French Tech by President Emmanuel Macron of France in January of 2018.

In addition to investing in and mentoring startups, Chambers promotes entrepreneurship, gender equality, and accelerating overall new business creation, as he believes that startups will be the core driver of economic growth and job creation in the Digital Age.

Author of Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Startup World, providing hard-won insights and critical tools to thrive during the accelerating disruption of the digital age.

Chambers has received numerous awards for his leadership, including being named the number two “Best-Performing CEOs in the World”in 2015 from Harvard Business Review, the Edison Achievement Award for Innovation, one of Barron’s’ “World’s Best CEOs”, “CEO of the Year” by Chief Executive Magazine, Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People,” the “Best Boss in America” by 20/20, and one of Businessweek’s “Top 25 Executives Worldwide.”

Prior to founding JC2Ventures, Chambers spent 25+ years with Cisco, serving as CEO, Chairman and Executive Chairman. He currently holds the title of Chairman Emeritus with the organization.