Padmasree Warrior, one of Silicon Valley’s high-profile women executives, has been appointed the U.S. chief executive officer of a Chinese firm which is building an electric car to compete with the American electric car manufacturer Tesla.
Ms. Warrior, 55, will be the chief development officer and CEO of the start-up NextEV. A technology industry veteran, Ms. Warrior was most recently Cisco’s Chief Technology and Strategy Officer and had stepped down from the position in June.
Warrior’s track record as a technology visionary is “undisputed” and her knowledge of the global markets and business acumen are “surpassed only by her ability to lead distributed teams of engineers and developers toward a common goal”, NextEV’s founder and chairman William Li said in a statement.
“Her passion for technology and the positive impact it can have on humanity, aligns well with the core values of NextEV as we build the first user-enterprise.
NextEV’s global team is comprised of the best minds from the automotive, software and user experience domains,” Mr. Li said. “We will leverage leading edge technologies to deliver world-class products to global consumers.”
Ms. Warrior said she had always looked for opportunities to leverage technology to tackle big problems.
“Climate change and air quality are two of the most significant global challenges today. I believe that electric vehicles will play a major role in the overall solution.”
Ms. Warrior has in the past been named by Forbes among the world’s 100 most powerful women. She is an alumna of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
