Something happened at Cisco Systems Israel this week. Following a visit by Cisco chairman John P. Morgridge and VP EMEA Mediterranean Jordi Botifoll, Cisco Israel country manager Gary Drutin told employees he was taking a long vacation and would not return to his post. Drutin told "Globes" that he had coordinated his departure with Cisco Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO) several months ago, and that it was not related to the company's recently loosing tenders it had been participating in.
"I'm taking a long vacation," Drutin said. "I had planned to do this when I reached 40, and I'm already 43. After this vacation, I'll return to look for other opportunities. This has been coordinated with my superiors for a long time."
"Globes": Will you return to Cisco?
Drutin: "No. I told them I would not return."
So you resigned.
"Look, I'm going through a quite orderly process of leaving. I have been coordinating this with my superiors for months. There's nothing new in this. We had planned to make an orderly press release when we had found a replacement. What happened was that, because of the ceremony with Morgridge and Botifoll and because I was not present for personal reasons, people asked where I was, and what happened. That's all."
Who will replace you?
"I'm helping my superior, Jordi Botifoll, find a replacement."
Will your replacement come from within Cisco Israel?
"There are also external candidates whose names I cannot disclose now."
According to information obtained by "Globes", you didn’t resign, but were fired, because of your losses of tenders and a Cisco investigation into suspected unauthorized imports of Cisco products into Israel by Cisco Israel in order to meet the low prices of Nortel Networks (NYSE; TSX:NT).
"I must admit that fantasy exceeds any possible reality. In this case, I'm simply awed by the Israeli imagination. There isn’t a grain of truth in anything you said. Cisco Israel's results are very good.
"I can only regret that Nortel is lowering prices, but we aren’t involved in any of the activities you mentioned. I think are people either a little emotional or interpreting or whatever. We never fired anyone at Cisco for losing a deal. Your sources are really creative. They're also probably good souls."
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on December 4, 2003