Distinguished Achievement Award Recipient Larry R. Carter
ASU’s College of Business honors Larry R. Carter
Larry R. Carter, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Cisco Systems, received the 2000 W. P. Carey School of Business Distinguished Achievement Award at the School's Undergraduate Graduation Convocation on Thursday, December 14, 2000.
Carter, who earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration/Accounting at the School of Business in 1974, has been a key player in the success of Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader of networking for the Internet. The Distinguished Achievement Award is presented annually to recognize leadership in the technology revolution and achievement in industry.
Since Carter's appointment as CFO in 1995, Cisco's revenues have grown from $1.2 billion to $18.9 billion. On July 31, 2000, Carter was appointed to Cisco's Board of Directors.
Carter marshaled over 25 years of experience to create a world-class finance organization at Cisco. His organization has set best practices standards by leveraging the Internet to enable daily financial reporting on key metrics to company executives, and is able to close worldwide financials in one day. The virtual close has not only increased the accuracy and timeliness of Cisco financial reporting, but has cut finance costs almost in half as a percentage of revenue. Under his leadership, Cisco Finance has been spotlighted in key publications such as Fortune, CFO Magazine and Financial Executive.
Before joining Cisco, Larry Carter's finance career was primarily in the semiconductor industry, holding financial leadership positions at Advanced Micro Devices, VLSI Technology, SGS Thompson Microelectronics and Motorola, Inc.
Carter is currently on the Board of Trustees at Loyola Marymount University, and serves on the Board of Directors for Network Appliance Inc., QLogic Corporation, eSpeed, Inc. and Transmeta Corporation.
A native of Miami, Arizona, Carter recently made a gift to the Globe Unified School District, widely expanding the District's Internet resources. As a result, the Globe schools are now networked, and every school has Internet access. Carter's gift also established a Cisco Networking Academy at the high school. The lab has made it possible for Globe to offer certification classes through the Cisco Network Academy to advanced computing students.
"Rural school districts with limited financial resources rarely get the opportunity to offer Level 4 or 'final' vocational courses like this one -- courses which prepare students to step directly into jobs without further training," said Globe Superintendent Michael Martinez. "This lab is invaluable because it gives our kids the choice of entering the work field in jobs that are higher than the apprentice level, or moving on to higher education equipped with advanced knowledge of computer networks."
Previous recipients of the Distinguished Achievement Award include retired investment consultant Edward Rondthaler IV; Gary L. Trujillo of Quepasa.com; Eric J. Crown, CEO of Insight Enterprises, Incorporated; Meyer Turken, owner of Turken Industrial Properties; and Barbara McConnell Barrett, aviation attorney and benefactor of the Barrett Honors College at ASU.
