Jayshree Ullal
M.S. Engineering Management and Leadership, 1986
In 2013, Jayshree Ullal received the School of Engineering's highest honor, the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award, honoring alumni whose accomplishments in their professions, communities, and University service have set them apart.
For more than 25 years, Ullal, president and chief executive officer of Arista Networks, has had an exemplary career in Silicon Valley. As former senior vice president at Cisco Systems, she oversaw some 20 mergers and acquisitions in the enterprise sector and was responsible for roughly $15 billion in annual revenue. Over the past 10 years she has been recognized on numerous fronts as one of the most powerful people in technology. At Arista Networks, she is currently responsible for building the company's business in cloud networking.
In addition to her many industry accomplishments, Ullal has also found time to establish (with her husband) a foundation to support cancer research, social services projects, and hunger relief programs in India, and she is a former trustee of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, a nonprofit organization created to increase the impact of women in technology. She has been quoted in Forbes magazine as saying: "the model at Arista is engineering first—you have to be 10 times better to beat the competition." This is a model that Ullal has implemented in her own life.