February 15, 2002

By Amy Hornick, News@Cisco

John Seaton, a level 3 systems engineer of Cisco Systems New Jersey, has been selected to receive the Excellence in Technical Sales & Marketing Award at the 2002 National Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. Each year, this award is presented to candidates whose qualifications and performance ranks them among the nation's highest achievers in technology. This marks the third consecutive year that a Cisco employee has received this honor. Other Cisco nominees for 2002 include Jawhny Cooke, Customer Support Engineer; Richard Shade, Lab Engineer; Steve Tolbert, PS Project Manager; Sonita Grimes, SW Engineer; and Ivan Fitzgerald, PS Project Manager.

Since joining the Cisco team in 1998, Seaton has considered his position the perfect blend of sales and engineering. While he enjoys technical work, he also craves direct interaction with his customers. In his current role as systems engineer, he gets the best of both worlds supporting the sales and account teams for his primary client, Ernst & Young. Responsible for writing RFPs, answering technical questions, facilitating technical training sessions and product presentations, Seaton has played a lead role in designing and implementing the final Cisco telephony solution recently adopted by lead customers.

Seaton has always been fascinated by the way things work. While other kids were reading Marvel Comics, John was pouring over the pages of Popular Science. As a young boy, Seaton was given free reign of the basement to conduct science experiments and to build his science fair projects, for which he typically won first place. With the guidance and support from his father, a grade school science teacher, Seaton learned very early that science was not only cool, but that he excelled at it.

By the eighth grade, Seaton knew he wanted to be an engineer. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School and received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Brooklyn's Polytechnic University, where he served as vice president of the local chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) his junior year. A true product of Ma Bell, Seaton was hired straight out of college by Bell Labs as a systems engineer and held various jobs in data transport, wireless cellular work and systems engineering over the next seven years. During this time, Seaton also received his masters in electrical engineering from Columbia University. His last three years were spent with AT&T in technical marketing which he sees as preparation for the communications and engineering expertise he offers in his current position with Cisco.

Seaton attributes his professional success to several factors: he takes his work seriously, always does his homework, and gives 110% to get the job done. He believes that true success comes from recognizing one's own talents and utilizing all available resources to extend those talents. He considers people to be his most important resource.

In addition to his contributions for Cisco, Seaton has also given back to his community as a mentor and instructor for minority youths. Seaton feels lucky to have had the kind of support and exposure he did as a young student, and in 1994 he began volunteering for the Program for Accelerated Careers in Engineering (PACE). For the next four years, Seaton spent his Saturdays teaching minority high school students about potential careers in math, science and engineering. And given that engineering is traditionally a difficult profession to explain, much less show, many students don't see these areas as legitimate career choices. Through PACE, Seaton witnessed the excitement of students newly exposed to the world of engineering and its practical applications.

2001 was a big year for Seaton. And 2002 proves to be even more exciting. In addition to winning the Black Engineer of the Year Award, he and his new wife were recently blessed with a baby boy who will be two weeks old at the time this article is published. He and his wife also have a twelve year-old daughter and nine year-old twins. Although Seaton has his hands full, there is no doubt that he will continue to serve as a role model both at Cisco and in the community.