Santa Clara University

Chris Paisley

Executive Lecturer

Christopher B. Paisley has served as the Dean’s Executive Professor of Accounting and Finance at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University since January 2001. Paisley retired from his position as Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer for 3Com Corporation in May 2000. Paisley joined 3Com Corporation in September 1985 as Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer . During his 15 years at 3Com, the company grew from $50M a year in sales to nearly $6B a year in sales, ranking in the top 300 on the May 2000 Fortune 500 list.

Prior to joining the company, Paisley was Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Ridge Computers, a scientific workstation manufacturer, from May 1982 to September 1985. Previously, he was employed by Hewlett-Packard Company for five years in a variety of accounting and finance positions.

Paisley has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of California at Los Angeles and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is a member of the Financial Executives Institute and a member of the Board of Directors for Volterra, Equinix and 3Par. Paisley serves as the Chairman of the Board for Volterra, as well as a member of both the Audit Committee and the Compensation Committee. He is chair of the Audit Committee, and serves on the Real Estate and Nominating /Corporate Governance Committees at Equinix.  Paisley also chairs the Audit Committee at 3Par.

Previously, Paisley served on the Board of Directors for Applied Digital Access, Legato Systems, Aspect Telecommunications, Brocade, Electronics for Imaging, Riverstone Networks, WJ Communications, Persistence Software and Silicon Image, where he also served as Chairman of the Board

July 2009