SAN JOSE — Cisco has promoted international comms leader Maria Poveromo to chief communications officer, filling a role vacated earlier this month when Stella Lowe left for Apple.

Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins formally announced Poveromo’s appointment this week in a blog post, saying her role includes “leading our amazing Global Communications team to shape and amplify Cisco’s story both internally and externally across the world."

“This past year we navigated so many new challenges, and our Global Communications team found new and creative ways to share information and connect with our teams, our customers, industry influencers, and our communities,” Robbins said. “With Maria’s leadership, we will continue to push new boundaries, innovate with our storytelling, and rethink what is possible across all communications channels.”

Poveromo joined Cisco in 2019 to run the tech giant’s international comms team. Before that, she spent 18 years at Adobe, including three as CCO.

Poveromo’s new appointment comes less than two weeks after Lowe left Cisco for Apple’s lead communications job, which has been vacant since Steve Dowling left the company in 2019.  She spent two years at Cisco as chief communications officer, prior to which she held senior communications roles at Dell, EMC and Unisys.