SiliconBeat

It’s official: Cisco’s chief executive, John Chambers, is now a member of Silicon Valley’s jet set. In fact, it’s a requirement.

Last month, Cisco’s board “adopted a travel policy” under which Chambers “is generally required to utilize a private airplane for business travel because his responsibilities on behalf of Cisco entail substantial national and international travel.” (But that’s nothing new, right?)

To help Chambers comply with the new ruling, Cisco will reimburse “for expenses incurred in the operation of his private plane when used solely for Cisco business provided such expenses do not exceed the market rate charged for equivalent commercial charter travel.”

The new policy was disclosed in the company’s proxy dated Sept. 19 The filing added that, “to date, there have been no reimbursements made to Mr. Chambers under this policy.” Of course, the period covered by that fact was probably no more than two weeks.

But the meter has since started running. Chambers attended Gartner’s Symposium/ITxpo 2008 conference in Orlando, Florida, last week, for example. However, there won’t be any jet-related charges for a meeting Chambers had Oct. 6 with Daniel Scioli, governor of the Argentine province of Buenos Aires. That’s because neither gentleman had to leave their home base. They met virtually using Cisco’s videoconferencing technology.