For Pankaj Patel, the decision to co-found Nile as a disruptive startup was the only logical answer. A self-proclaimed “geek,” he doesn’t dwell or take solace in past achievements; his passion for contributing to the world and to the industry that has given him so much is what drives him. Nile’s commitment and strength lie in making overly and unnecessarily complex networking infrastructure solutions simple – this is Pankaj’s vision. Leaning on his obsession and superpower of customer delight, he is spearheading a culture here at Nile which values transparency, diversity of thought, leadership accessibility.

Prior to Nile Pankaj was a partner and Chief Strategy Officer at JC2 ventures, and a senior advisor to March Capital. Before that, Pankaj was Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer at Cisco Systems, Inc where he served for nearly 14 years. As the engineering head of the company’s $38 billion product and solution portfolio, he drove the business and technology strategy across Cisco’s entire product offerings. Pankaj also serves on the board of directors of several technology startups.