Charlie Giancarlo's ascension through the senior management ranks at Cisco have taken another step forward on news he's been named chief development officer - replacing Mario Mazzola, who is retiring. Giancarolo was named chief technology officer last year. Cisco also said two other rising stars - Jayshree Ullal and Mike Volpi - will take added responsibilities now handled by executives who are retiring. With these appointments and some senior management changes last month, you wonder if the horse race to eventually succeed CEO John Chambers over the next few years has already started. From a Canadian perspective, it's interesting to compare how Cisco manages his executive changes while Nortel struggles to complete the overhaul of its senior management team following the recent departures of COO Gary Daichendt and CTO Gary Kunis.