John P. Morgridge (born 1933) is an American businessman who was the CEO and chairman of the board of

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

Early life and education

Morgridge was born to L. D. Morgridge and Ruth Gordon Morgridge, who were both teachers and church members.L. Wayne Hicks.
Philanthropy is all in the family for the Morgridges
. ''Denver Business Journal'', August 1, 2014.Ruth Gordon Morgridge, 102
. ''Cape Cod Times'', November 18, 1997. He has one brother, Dean L. Morgridge, and one sister, Barbara Morgridge. He grew up in

Wauwatosa Wauwatosa (; known informally as Tosa; originally Wau-wau-too-sa or Hart's Mill) is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 48,387 at the 2020 census. Wauwatosa is located immediately west of Milwaukee, and is a pa ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, where he attended

Wauwatosa East High School Wauwatosa East High School is a comprehensive four-year public high school in the city of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. It is part of the Wauwatosa School District. The school was originally known as Wauwatosa Senior High School until the opening of Wauw ...

.Julie Sensat Waldren.
Where I’m From: Oprah, Frank Caliendo, Gene Wilder, Tony Romo. 30 celebrities remember growing up here
. ''Milwaukee Magazine'', August 25, 2008. He worked part-time at jobs such as washing equipment in a

sweet pea The sweet pea, ''Lathyrus odoratus'', is a flowering plant in the genus ''Lathyrus'' in the family (biology), family Fabaceae (legumes), native plant, native to Sicily, southern Italy and the Aegean Islands. It is an annual plant, annual climbi ...

cannery Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container ( jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although ...

, digging stone at the

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

in Lannon, washing walls in Milwaukee's Pabst Brewery, doing

road construction A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

on Highway 64, and working as a railroad

brakeman A brakeman is a rail transport worker whose original job was to assist the braking of a train by applying brakes on individual wagons. The earliest known use of the term to describe this occupation occurred in 1833. The advent of through brakes, ...

. In 1955, he graduated from the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

Forbes Billionaires: John Morgridge
March 2013 and in 1957, he earned an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Career

After school, he worked for Stratus Computer and

Honeywell Information Systems Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance m ...

before serving as president and chief operating officer of GRiD Systems.Cisco website: John Morgridge biography
retrieved September 10, 2013 He joined Cisco in 1988, then a four-year-old company with 34 employees, as its second

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

and chairman of the board. He was replaced by John Chambers as CEO in 1995 and as chairman in 2006. At his retirement in 2006, Cisco had 50,000 employees in 77 countries.Academy of Achievement: "John Morgridge"
retrieved September 10, 2013

Philanthropy

In 2010, Morgridge and his wife donated $175 million to create the Fund for Wisconsin Scholars, an endowment which will provide grants to low-income students attending one of Wisconsin’s public colleges or universities. Morgridge Family Foundation donated funds to Immanuel Lutheran School, Mount Olive Lutheran Church, and to several educational and volunteering organizations. Looking back on his life, says John Morgridge, in addition to parents, church and school, "it's the community that helps form our moral compass. It's those attitudes that I've remembered through my entire lifetime. We've been very blessed with what this country has given us. And we intend, before we die, to give it back." Morgridge serves on several corporate and charity boards of directors, including

the Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Natu ...

, the

Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation is the independent nonprofit technology transfer organization serving the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Morgridge Institute for Research. It provides significant research support, granting tens o ...

, and was a trustee of

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

(2002–2007) where he teaches management at the Graduate School of Business. Morgridge and his wife are among the group of American billionaires who have committed to give the majority of their wealth to the

philanthropic Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

causes and/or charities as part of

The Giving Pledge The Giving Pledge is a campaign to encourage extremely wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. , the pledge has 236 signatories from 28 countries. Most of the signatories of the pledge are billionaires, an ...

Personal life

Morgridge married his high school sweetheart, Tashia Frankfurth (now a special education teacher), great granddaughter of

William Frankfurth William Frankfurth (1829–1891) was a German American businessman and founder of the ''German-English Academy '' (today University School of Milwaukee). Biography Frankfurth was born in Gudensberg, Hesse, Germany. He joined the Freie Gemeinde ...

, the co-founder of the German-English Academy, which is now known as the

University School of Milwaukee The University School of Milwaukee (often abbreviated to USM) is an independent pre-kindergarten through secondary preparatory school in River Hills and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was founded as the result of the merger of three schools, Milwa ...

. They have an adult son and daughter, and a second son who died of leukemia.The Capital Times (Madison): "Couple donates hundreds of millions to state causes" by TODD FINKELMEYER
December 1, 2010 Morgridge was featured in the documentary film ''

Something Ventured "Something Ventured" is a 2011 documentary film investigating the emergence of American venture capitalism in the mid-20th century. ''Something Venture''d follows the stories of the venture capitalists who worked with entrepreneurs to start and b ...

'', which premiered in 2011.

Honors and recognition

*1991, Wisconsin Distinguished Business Alumnus Award *1996, Stanford Graduate School of Business Arbuckle Award *2005, Distinguished Alumni Award from the Wisconsin Alumni Association *2007, Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...

*2012, Regents’ Award for Distinguished Service to the University of Wisconsin System *2015, James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award *2017, TECH CORPS Leadership in Technology Award

References

External links

Biography
from

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Natu ...

Biography
from

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgridge, John 1933 births American billionaires American chairpersons of corporations American chief executives of manufacturing companies American people in rail transportation Cisco people Giving Pledgers 21st-century philanthropists Living people People from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni Stanford University Graduate School of Business faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Stanford University trustees People from Portola Valley, California