During an Engineering graduation ceremony on Monday 2 July, John Manville (Electrical and Electronic Engineering 1980) received an honorary fellowship from UCL Provost & President Prof Michael Arthur for his dedication to UCL and UCL students.

John Manville is Senior Vice President of Cisco IT Global Infrastructure Services at Cisco USA in San Jose, CA. John leads the strategy and operations for Cisco’s cloud infrastructure and platform services, security, network services, collaboration and software platforms.  These systems provide the technology infrastructure services for Cisco’s global workforce.

Aside from his duties as board member of the UCLFAA, John and his dedicated team of colleagues have welcomed and mentored UCL Engineering students as part of the Cisco International Internship Programme (CIIP), an exclusive programme offered to a select group of universities worldwide.

Since 2012, over 75 UCL students from Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Management Science and Innovation have benefited from this programme which involves both undergraduate and postgraduate students spending a work placement year in California working for the company. A third of those completing the internship have gone on to work full-time for Cisco.

“We want people who are excited and inspired enough to think about doing things differently. We need people to innovate in whatever sphere of influence they have and change the world in that.” John speaking about UCL Engineering graduates.

The financial value of the programme to UCL is very considerable, but John and his team’s contribution goes far beyond that. In California, John and his colleagues mentor the students and arrange events for them to develop their personal networks in Silicon Valley. John and his team regularly visit London and Cisco’s collaboration with UCL stretches far beyond just internships.

John does this “…because it is the right thing to do and you get a real sense of dealing with students who are going to go out and change the world.  UCL students really are amazing and are from across the world, which is good for Britain and keeps me connected.”

If you are in a position to do something similar for UCL students, get in touch with the Alumni Relations team at UCL.

At the same ceremony, UCL honored Mr Matthew Barzun, former US ambassador to the UK and entrepreneur, with an honorary fellowship for his extraordinary professional achievements and for championing the US-UK relationship.