Melissa Selcher, VP and chief communications officer for Cisco, has moved to professional networking platform LinkedIn as VP of corporate communications.
Selcher spent more than 10 years at Cisco, joining in 2008 to rebuild its analyst relations unit and rising to communications chief in 2014. Her duties included oversight of its highly publicized CEO change last year that saw John Chambers step down for Chuck Robbins.
She worked marketing for Matrix Semiconductor, now part of Sandisk, and held communications and marketing roles with Continental Airlines and Trilogy.
The “waiting period” that was once set aside for CEOs to develop their strategies before facing media scrutiny may be better used for corporate comms leaders get to know their CEO and what his or her short-term priorities will be.
Senior-most communications executives in the Fortune 500 earned between $50,000 and $100,000 more this year than they did two years ago, according to a recent survey of chief communications officers.
The pressure is on PR pros to make sure corporate messaging remains clear and cohesive. Business jargon is an obstacle to achieving this goal.
