Two days after reporting another knockout fiscal quarter, Cisco Systems Inc. said Thursday that Mike Volpi, the senior vice president and general manager in charge of the routing and service provider technology group, has resigned from the company.

Volpi, 40, whose business unit has been an important part of Cisco's rapid growth, said his decision to leave was influenced by a desire to create an organization with "a little bit more of my personality."

Volpi said he did not have a job immediately lined up, and emphasized that his departure after 13 years with the company was a personal decision that was unrelated to the company's position or operations.

"It's mostly a personal desire that I have to try something a little bit different," he said on a conference call with reporters. "Cisco offers a lot of good things, but at some point I would like to have the opportunity to create an organization where I have my signature, my DNA, within it."

The San Jose-based company announced several organizational changes because of Volpi's departure, including expanded roles for Charlie Giancarlo, Cisco's chief development officer and president of the Cisco-Linksys division.

Cisco also announced that it was centralizing most of its software development functions into one business group.