Cisco Names New Head Of Global Partner Marketing: Exclusive

Cisco promoted Luxy Thuraisingam, leader of Canadian marketing, to head global partner marketing, the tech giant told CRN exclusively.

Cisco Systems has promoted Luxy Thuraisingam to its new head of global partner marketing, the tech giant told CRN exclusively.

Thuraisingam has nearly two decades of marketing experience, which includes supporting channel partners and emerging IT consumption models, such as cloud and everything as-a-service, according to San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco.

Thuraisingam is replacing Boon Lai, who served as vice president of global partner marketing for Cisco for more than two years. Lai joined Google in January as senior director of product marketing, Google workspace communications.

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In her new role, Thuraisingam will report to Michelle Chiantera, vice president of Americas growth marketing and global partner segments for Cisco.

“I’m excited to have the opportunity to take what I’ve learned from working with partners via my America’s industry role and Cisco’s fantastic Canadian partner ecosystem and, together with the team, expand my relationships and drive impact for Cisco partners on a global scale,” Thuraisingam said in an email to CRN. “Drawing on my 18-plus years’ experience as a marketing innovator, my team will optimize partner programs by bridging data with creative applications, while supporting emerging consumption models such as a service and cloud-based product launches.”

Thuraisingam started at Cisco in 2019 as vice president, Americas industry and Canada growth marketing. In her last role, she led a marketing organization that included supporting Cisco’s partners. Thuraisingam has been instrumental in transforming the Canada marketing culture, earned the trust of sales stakeholders and partners, and delivered exceptional business results, according to Chiantera in a blog post on the promotion.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Thuraisingam expanded her focus to include leading Cisco’s Americas industry organization, where she delivered success by increasing vertical relevancy for Cisco’s customers and partners, Chiantera said.

“Empowering our partners to become future ready is fundamental to their success. As a marketing organization, we strive to support, enable, and lead our partners to growth,” she said in the blog. “We are thrilled to formally announce Thuraisingam as the new head of Global Partner Marketing and have her join us at our upcoming Marketing Velocity event.”

Marketing has never played a more important role for Cisco partners, Oliver Tuszik, Cisco’s channel chief, said in an email to CRN. “[Partners] are being challenged to engage with new and existing customers in new ways across the entire spectrum of social, virtual and digital marketing. [Thuraisingam] not only has the proven skills across all of these, but she understands the partner landscape and what it takes to help them succeed.”

Prior to her time with Cisco, Thuraisingam led marketing for two different Canadian telecommunications companies. She served as director of digital performance marketing for Rogers Communications and senior marketing manager for Telus Corp.

Outside of her work with Cisco, Thuraisingam is a MarTech co-chair for the Canadian Marketing Association, a board member for Outward Bound Canada for Canadian youths, and is a digital marketing professor for York University in Toronto.