Cisco is tasking 27-year-old engineer Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy with rewriting 98% of its legacy code within two years. President Jeetu Patel said, "Tension is good. I actually try to create tension in the teams." Krishnamurthy joined Cisco in 2025 after the company bought his startup. He now aims to drive major innovation.
In an ambitious move, Cisco is set to overhaul 98% of its legacy code within two years, spearheaded by 27-year-old Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy. Cisco President Jeetu Patel highlights the crucial role of young talent in driving innovation and urging them to question established norms while fostering collaboration. With a background in startup co-founding and AI projects, Krishnamurthy brings valuable insights to this transformative endeavor.
Cisco President Jeetu Patel reportedly is backing a 27-year-old engineer, Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, to rewrite 98% of the company's legacy code within the next 24 months. As reported by the Fortune, the decision is meant to encourage younger employees to challenge established practices and bring fresh ideas into the organisation.
Patel believes that introducing a degree of "tension" into team dynamics can encourage creativity and innovation. He said, "Tension is good. I actually try to create tension in the teams because you want to have enough friction on the ideas. You don't want to have friction with people and personalities."
Patel has expressed strong confidence in Krishnamurthy's plan. "I've given him unlimited tokens because he's going to refactor code. So I'm like, you can go, you can go nuts," he said.
Who is Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy?Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy joined Cisco in 2025 following the company's acquisition of EzDubs, a real-time translation startup he co-founded in 2023.
Despite his entrepreneurial background, Krishnamurthy initially occupied a position five organisational levels below Patel. According to the account reported by Fortune, he was assigned work that Patel considered insufficiently strategic.
During a visit to Cisco's San Francisco office, Patel spoke with Krishnamurthy about his work. Their conversation led to the idea that a two-person team could take on the challenge of modernising the company's legacy code.
The initial target was to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach within four weeks. The larger objective was to transform 98% of the legacy code over the following two years.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Krishnamurthy currently serves as
Technical Assistant to the President at Cisco.
Before joining Cisco in his current capacity, he worked as a graduate researcher at Columbia University. He had also completed a four-month internship at Cisco between June and September 2022.
Krishnamurthy's professional experience also includes working as a co-founder and researcher at Helen AI.
Education and academic backgroundKrishnamurthy completed his schooling at Bishop Cotton Boys' School in India.
He subsequently attended the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where he earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Science.
He later pursued a master's degree in Computer Science at Columbia University.
His academic background, entrepreneurial experience and early association with Cisco have now placed him at the centre of an ambitious software modernisation initiative at the technology company.