Cisco Picks Former Channel Chief Oliver Tuszik To Lead Global Sales, Replacing Gary Steele

The former channel chief’s appointment to the executive leadership team is a testament to Cisco’s commitment to the channel, one Cisco partner tells CRN. Tuszik is taking over at the helm for former Splunk CEO and Cisco’s president of go-to-market Gary Steele, who is leaving the company to lead an AI-powered defense startup later this month.

Oliver Tuszik, Cisco’s beloved former global channel chief and current EMEA president, is joining Cisco’s executive leadership team.

Effective April 27, Tuszik will become Cisco’s executive vice president of global sales. Tuszik will be taking over for Gary Steele, Cisco’s president of go-to-market, who is leaving the company at the end of this week.

Tuszik’s appointment to the ELT is a testament to Cisco’s commitment to the channel, said Lane Irvine, director of strategic alliances for Long View Systems, a Calgary, Alberta-based Cisco Gold partner.

“Cisco does a great job of keeping the partner front and center, so what I like about this is [Tuszik] will work well with the partner community in getting the sales team aligned with the partner community, which is so critical to success. We’re not going to be successful without that,” Irvine said.

Tuszik, for his part, has been Cisco’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region president since August 2023. The channel veteran spent the previous five years as senior vice president of global partner sales and routes to market for Cisco. Before that, Tuszik served as vice president and general manager of Cisco Germany for five years. Tuszik joined Cisco in 2013 after nearly 10 years at Computacenter Germany, with five of those years as CEO. U.K.-based Computacenter is one of Cisco’s largest channel partners. He headed Computacenter’s networking business before becoming CEO.

Cisco’s ELT is now stacked with former channel leaders, including the company’s CEO Chuck Robbins, who once sat in the channel chief seat himself. Tuszik’s strong channel background and his understanding of Cisco’s business thanks to his long tenure at the company is reassuring to the channel, Irvine said.

“I think Cisco will use the opportunity to really understand what the partners care about,” Irvine said. “I’m optimistic that that lens that [Tuszik] brings with him to the sales side, from both an operational perspective of running the countries and running Europe, and then the partner side of things, he’ll be very logical and bring a great approach to how he runs the business.”

CEO Robbins called Tuszik (pictured above) a “fantastic leader and incredible person” in a LinkedIn post on his new appointment.

“[Tuszik] has a global perspective, proven track record, and a customer and partner-first mentality. He’s a champion of our technology, and anyone who has worked with him can tell you his energy, enthusiasm, and passion shine through in all that he does … As we were searching for our new sales leader, it became clear that Oliver was the right person for the job as we look to support our customers and partners in the AI era and to accelerate Cisco’s growth,” Robbins said in his post.

Tuszik in his own post on LinkedIn said that he is taking on his new role during an exciting time for Cisco and the technology sector.

“AI is transforming how each of us lives and works, changing companies and entire industries, and supporting unprecedented levels of creativity and innovation. Cisco is at the heart of this AI revolution, reimagining how infrastructure and data connect and protect [organizations]. I can’t wait to work with the sales teams and our Cisco partners to bring this to life for our customers,” the tech veteran wrote. “Being the EVP for Global Sales is a dream job for me, and one that I’ve been preparing for all my life. I was an engineer, developing software and designing networks at university before [realizing] I was more suited to sales and leading teams. That’s where I’ve been for the past 30 years - sales is in my DNA.”

Following the close of the $28 billion Splunk acquisition in 2024, Cisco added Steele, Splunk’s former CEO, to its ranks as its president of go-to-market in May 2024. Steele served in this role for less than a year until Cisco announced during its Q2 2025 earnings call in February that the executive would be resigning as of April 25 to pursue a CEO position outside of the company.

Steele announced in March that he would be joining drone and defense technology startup Shield AI as its new chief executive officer.