Ex-Cisco Executive Padmasree Warrior Joins Electric-Car Startup
December 15 2015 - 11:30PM
Dow Jones News
By Don Clark
One of Silicon Valley's best-known female tech executives is
shifting industries to join the global race to develop electric
cars.
Padmasree Warrior, who until September served as chief
technology and strategy officer at Cisco Systems Inc., said she is
joining Chinese auto startup NextEV Inc. as its U.S. chief
executive officer and head of software development.
Based in Shanghai, NextEV is part of a new crop of
Chinese-backed entrants that aim to challenge Tesla Motors Inc. and
other manufacturers in the electric vehicle market.
Ms. Warrior, a 55 year-old Indian-born executive who takes part
in many tech industry events, said she wanted to try a new field
where her 30 years of technology experience would still be
relevant. "I wanted to be part of creating something that is bigger
and different," she said.
Founded in 2014, NextEV doesn't yet have electric vehicles on
the market, but has already developed a single-passenger race car
that has competed in the FIA Formula E races for electric
vehicles.
NextEV has raised $500 million and hopes to attract total
funding of $1 billion, the startup said. Investors include Tencent
Holdings Ltd., the Chinese investment management company Hillhouse
Capital and a China-based arm of venture-capital firm Sequoia
Capital. Other prominent Internet entrepreneurs have also invested,
NextEV said.
NextEV was founded by William Li, the chairman and CEO of an
automobile-focused Internet content and marketing company Bitauto
Holdings Ltd. Its president is Martin Leach, an auto industry
veteran who is a former top executive at Ford Motor Co., Mazda
Motor Corp. and Maserati.
NextEV hopes to develop electric cars that are affordable for
consumers, selling initially in China and then branching into other
markets, Ms. Warrior said. It hasn't set a timetable for bringing
those vehicles to market.
First, though, the company hopes to deliver what it calls a
"supercar," a 1,360-horsepower speedster that would compete against
high-end sports cars, Ms. Warrior said.
NextEV plans to rely on partners for manufacturing but hasn't
selected any yet, Ms. Warrior said.
The company's potential rivals, besides Tesla, include startups
such as Faraday Future Inc. and Karma Automotive, which was known
as Fisker Automotive before China's Wanxiang Group Corp. bought the
company out of bankruptcy.
NextEV has said it has hired 400 employees to date and set up
research and design centers in locations that include London, Hong
Kong, Munich and San Jose, Calif.
Ms. Warrior, who will be based in the California location, said
she would oversee the global development of software for the
company's cars as well as some vehicle development.
Ms. Warrior joined Cisco in 2008 and held a variety of
positions. In her final job, she was responsible for activities
that included mergers and acquisitions, venture investments, and
strategic partnerships.
She announced plans to leave Cisco in June, the month after
Chuck Robbins was named to succeed long-standing CEO John Chambers.
Ms. Warrior said she had considered leaving the company for some
time, so she couldn't commit to staying on as part of Mr. Robbins'
new management team for a definite period of time. Leaving Cisco
"was entirely my decision," she said.
Before Cisco, Ms. Warrior served 23 years at Motorola Inc.,
holding positions that included chief technology officer. She was
recently named to the board of directors of Microsoft Corp. and in
2014 became a director of file-sharing company Box Inc.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 16, 2015 00:15 ET (05:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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