Darren Pleasance

Darren Pleasance leads Cisco’s Acceleration Center, an organization formed to accelerate the success of mission-critical aspects of Cisco's business transformation. Darren and the Acceleration Center play a principal role in the delivery of Cisco's highest-priority, cross-functional initiatives. 

Darren previously led Cisco's Go-to-Market Strategy & Operations organization where he and his team developed high impact go-to-market models to empower the performance of sales, marketing, and the partner ecosystem. They also delivered progressive training, incentive programs, tools, and infrastructure to help sales teams and partners successfully pursue broad market opportunities.

Prior to Cisco, Darren led Global Customer Acquisitions for Google. He and his team drove Google's global growth in the advertising space across a diverse set of industries. In this capacity, Darren provided guidance for the Sales, Marketing, Market Intelligence and Support teams for attracting new business to Google's portfolio of advertising services.

Darren’s experience before Google includes tenure as a Partner with McKinsey & Co.'s High-Tech Sector and Marketing & Sales Practice, where he founded McKinsey's global Small and Medium-sized Business (SMB) practice. In this role, he helped clients build high-performing sales, marketing, and support channels.

Darren holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management. He also serves on the board of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). He is a frequent speaker on the topics of innovation, SMB, digital marketing, and career management.