MENLO PARK, Calif., and NEW YORK -- Silver Lake, the leader in private investments in technology, technology-enabled, and related growth industries, announced today that Charles Giancarlo, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer of Cisco Systems, will join the firm as a Managing Director effective January 1, 2008, following his departure from Cisco.

Giancarlo, 50, will be based in Silver Lake's Menlo Park office and will have a full range of investment and value creation responsibilities.

Giancarlo said, "Silver Lake is unrivaled in its ability to identify and execute on compelling and attractive investment opportunities in the technology arena. I’m excited to apply my experience in new and challenging ways at Silver Lake by joining a team with such exceptional specialist knowledge, world-class operational expertise and disciplined investment acumen. I look forward to working with them to make significant contributions to the firm’s continued track record of success. It has been a great pleasure to work for Cisco over the past 14 years, and I am proud to have contributed to building the world’s leading Communications and IT Company. I am confident Cisco will continue to build on its tremendous foundation, its strong markets, and the quality of its people and management, and on that basis I am pleased to be taking on new challenges and opportunities at Silver Lake at this time.”

David Roux, co-founder and Co-Chief Executive of Silver Lake said, "We are truly gratified to welcome Charlie Giancarlo to Silver Lake. Executives of Charlie’s caliber and experience are rare, and we couldn’t be more pleased that he has decided to bring his wealth of knowledge about global technology management, strategy and product development, and his rich network of relationships, to Silver Lake. He will be tremendously valued and a strong contributor to our team."

As Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer at Cisco, Giancarlo led Cisco’s overall product development and market strategy activities. He was responsible for over 30,000 employees including over 23,000 development engineers, and over $30 billion of product sales.

Earlier, as Cisco’s first Vice President of Business Development, he successfully developed Cisco’s merger and acquisition strategy and practice and played an instrumental role in Cisco’s first 18 acquisitions and 20 investments.

Giancarlo first joined Cisco in 1993 when it acquired Kalpana, the company that invented Ethernet Switching. He was an early developer of both ATM and Switched Ethernet technologies which now represent a market exceeding $15 billion annually.

Giancarlo holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical engineering from Brown University and the University of California at Berkeley, respectively, and a master’s in business administration from Harvard University.

Silver Lake Partners

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO)