Founding engineer of Cisco TelePresence jumps to rival

Another notable Cisco official is leaving the company. Phil Graham, engineering founder of Cisco's TelePresence initiative has joined Avaya to lead its R&D for "next-generation endpoints that improve the user experience and promote effective business collaboration," according to an e-mail from Avaya PR.

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Graham came to Cisco via the 1998 acquisition of Judy Estrin's streaming video pioneer Precept Software. While at Cisco, Graham drove development of all the TelePresence endpoint, multipoint, recording, and scheduling products and oversaw adjacent TelePresence business units. Estrin became Cisco's second CTO.

Graham also led a team in the company's Technology Center, a group developing video and home networking technologies. Graham served as director of engineering for Cisco's Video Internet Services Unit, which was responsible for enterprise video streaming products like Cisco IP/TV, a direct result of the Precept acquisition.

Graham joins a list of other high-profile Cisco executives to leave the company as it winnows its focus and transitions itself back into a router and switch company. Video, ironically, is a market Cisco intends to drive and lead in, and one of the five key areas of focus for the company as it realigns operations.