Sandy Lerner

Sandy Lerner (born 1955) is an American businesswoman and philanthropist who co-founded Cisco Systems. In 1984, while directing computer facilities at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, she and her then-partner Len Bosack worked on a project to connect the school's computer systems, adapting Stanford software into what became the foundation for Cisco IOS. The early company built routers in a living room and was financed with credit cards. John Morgridge became chief executive in 1988, Lerner was dismissed on 28 August 1990, and she and Bosack sold all their stock for 170 million dollars. She later put part of her earnings into a venture capital partnership, bought Ayrshire Farm in Virginia in 1996 to farm sustainably and humanely, and devoted herself to animal welfare and to Chawton House Library in England.