NEW YORK — The Ford Foundation announced today that Chuck Robbins, chairman and chief executive officer of Cisco Systems, the US-based multinational technology company, has been elected to serve as a member of its board of trustees.

In addition to leading Cisco, Robbins is a member of the board of the Business Roundtable, where he chairs its immigration committee, and serves on the board of directors at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. He is also a member of the International Business Council for the World Economic Forum and serves as chairman of the US-Japan Business Council. He previously served on the board of Business Executives for National Security, an organization of executive leaders who volunteer their expertise to help enhance the nation’s security.

“I’m delighted that Chuck Robbins will be joining our outstanding group of trustees,” said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. “His knowledge and experience at the intersection of business, finance, and technology brings an enormously valuable perspective to the foundation. Chuck is committed to the foundation’s values of social justice and building bridges between business, the public sector, and civil society.

Robbins joined Cisco in 1997 and held a number of global management positions before assuming the role of CEO in 2015 and chairman in 2017.

Robbins has taken the lead in addressing the homelessness crisis in Santa Clara County with Cisco’s $50 million commitment to Destination: Home, a public-private partnership that aims to significantly reduce homelessness in the region. “In this part of the world, affordable housing, homelessness, hunger—these are all issues that companies in Silicon Valley have to care about,” Robbins has said.

About his election to the board, Robbins said, “It is an honor to join the board of the Ford Foundation. I have admired the work of the foundation for some time and look forward to working with my fellow trustees and the foundation’s dedicated staff to further efforts to address inequality around the globe.”

Born and raised in Georgia, Robbins has served as a member of the Partnership Against Domestic Violence, the largest nonprofit dedicated to preventing domestic violence in the state of Georgia, and served on the advisory board for the president of Georgia Tech.

Robbins holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a computer science concentration from the University of North Carolina.

Ford Foundation trustees are elected by its board and serve up to two six-year terms. Trustees set broad policy relating to grantmaking, geographic focus, investments, governance and professional standards, and they oversee internal and independent audits. The foundation’s trustees hail from four continents and have extensive experience in the worlds of higher education, business and finance, technology, law, government, and the nonprofit sector.