Welcome to the Second in Command Podcast, produced by the C.O. Alliance and brought to

its founder Cameron Herald.

In the second-in-command podcast, we talked to top COOs who share the insights, strategies,

and tactics that made them the chief behind the chief.

And now here's your host, Cameron Harold.

Our guest today's Denise Thomas,

the VP of Operations and CEO for Cisco's Maraki Business Unit,

where she's responsible for inclusion, employee experience, IT, business systems,

program management, facilities, business business and manufacturing operations.

Before her current role, Denise served as Maraki's chief of staff at Maraki and head of people.

An experienced operator, Denise played a pivotal role in enabling Maraki to grow from 300 employees to over 2000, helping the team navigate its high growth startup stage through a successful integration as part of Cisco.

Denise has held a range of roles at leading companies including Uncommon Schools, Long's Drugs,

CVS, TJX companies, and Frito LAY.

Denise holds a BA in economics from Yale University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business,

I'm like practically not worthy to be on this podcast. I was the I was the dumb kid in school,

you were the smart one welcome to the second

grand podcast. Nice to be here. My mom and my mom we're on vacation and my mom is

here and I maybe I should have invited her in so that way she could have a different perspective of who I am now.

I couldn't spell Stanford.

Like Yale and Stanford.

Was school always easy for you or did you work really hard at it?

You know, I think it was a mixture of things.

...