The Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) announced Thursday that former CEO and chairman of Cisco Systems John P. Morgridge MBA ’57 will serve as this year’s graduation speaker. Morgridge will be the third alumnus to speak at the annual GSB graduation ceremony, which will be held Saturday, June 16.

Morgridge, who is on the school’s Advisory Council, teaches management at the GSB and earned the Arbuckle Award for management leadership excellence in 1996.

He joined Cisco Systems as its CEO in 1988. During his time with the company, Cisco Systems grew from $5 million in sales with 34 employees to more than $1 billion in sales with 2,250 employees. He took the company public in 1990, became its chairman in 1995 and chairman emeritus in 2006.

Morgridge was the president and COO of GRiD Systems before joining Cisco Systems and previously worked for Stratus Computer and Honeywell Information Systems.

He is on the boards of Business Executives for National Security, CARE, the Cisco Foundation, Digital Promise, the Morgridge Institute for Research, Stanford Hospitals and Clinics, TOSA Foundation, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and the Fund for Wisconsin Scholars. He is also the co-chair of the Asia-Pacific Council of The Nature Conservancy and co-director of the Stanford Leadership Academy.

He is the third consecutive alumni speaker at GSB graduation ceremonies following the 2010 inception of the alumni commencement speaker program.

— Alice Phillips