Leadership Dinner: Rich Goldberg

Dine with inspiring leaders from various industries and organizations. At Leadership Dinners, you will interact with proven leaders and a small group of graduate students over dinner at the Faculty Club.  

Rich Goldberg, former vice president of corporate quality, Cisco

Rich had a long and distinguished career as a senior business executive with Cisco Systems and AT&T, two of the world’s market leaders in communications and information technology. Rich’s leadership style links strategic thought and tactical execution. With a track record of assembling and directing teams of talented individuals based on his well-established interpersonal skills, he also developed a reputation as a champion for inclusion and diversity of the teams he led and supported. He has started a consulting practice focusing on inclusion and diversity, and quality improvement. 

Most recently, Rich was an Inaugural Fellow in the Distinguished Careers Institute (DCI) at Stanford University. The Stanford DCI is a dynamic new program for established leaders who seek to transform themselves for roles with social impact at the local, national, and global levels. Rich’s focus at Stanford has been with the Clayman Institute for Gender Research on the topic of engaging men in the transformation of workplaces, leveraging his passion at Cisco as the co-lead of the allies community, Cisco Men for Inclusion. As an Advisory Fellow, he now works on improving and expanding DCI programs and reach in the corporate and academic communities. 

Rich previously served as the Vice President of Corporate Quality at Cisco Systems. At Cisco, Rich led programs that improve customer experience through process, product, and service quality. He led the quality management system across Cisco’s global enterprise, including technical and product compliance, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and TL9000 certifications, quality data and metrics, and driving sustainable quality and customer experience improvement in products and solutions. He also led the operations for Cisco’s Quality Experience Steering Committee, which brought together leaders from across the business to achieve company-wide quality excellence while transforming customer experiences. As a former longtime customer of Cisco, Rich not only brought a customer’s perspective, but also engaged Cisco’s global customers through a variety of customer forums aimed at driving quality initiatives. 

In addition, Rich has been an active and valued advisor in academic settings. He twice chaired the corporate affiliates program of UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, while serving on the dean’s advisory council, and similarly on the dean’s council of the University of the Pacific’s School of Engineering and Computer Science. He is also a current member of the Santa Cruz county civil grand jury, part of the judicial branch of government. Rich completed the Executive Program in Business at the University of Michigan. He has a Ph.D. in Physics from Caltech, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from MIT. 

When Rich isn’t working, he enjoys golf, reading, home improvement projects, and spending time with his wife Linda, three children and two grandchildren.

Please Note:
Leadership Dinners have limited seating. If you are accepted you must confirm your place by submitting a Student Participation Fee Agreement, which authorizes VPGE to charge $50 to your Stanford bill – only if you do not fully participate in the event.