Former Cisco President Robert Lloyd said Wednesday he was looking forward to disrupting the transportation industry as CEO of Hyperloop Technologies.
Lloyd announced his appointment as chief executive and board member on Hyperloop's blog on Wednesday. He takes the reins as the company is developing a test track to pilot its high-speed transportation technology, which shoots levitating pods through a low-pressure tube.
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk first presented the idea for the hyperloop in 2013, though he is not directly involved in Hyperloop Technologies. The Los Angeles-based company was co-founded by former SpaceX engineer Brogan BamBrogan and early Uber investor Shervin Pishevar, who now serve as chief technology officer and board chairman, respectively.
Lloyd joins Hyperloop after 20 years at Cisco, where he was rumored to be a possible successor to longtime CEO John Chambers. He left in July after Cisco named senior vice president Chuck Robbins CEO.
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After helping to build out the Internet, Lloyd said he was excited to transform transportation.
"The engineering is a certainty," he told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" "This is going to be about execution and turning Hyperloop into a reality."
To do that, Hyperloop Technologies is currently raising money to build a two-mile test track, which Lloyd said would be completed by the end of 2016 or in early 2017.
The company is currently developing the tube design and manufacturing process, as well as the technology that will levitate the pod in a manner similar to an air hockey puck, Lloyd said. It plans to use the technology not only for passenger transportation, but for high-speed cargo delivery.
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"We're living in an on-demand economy, but the backbone of this economy has to keep up, and Hyperloop is in the process of building that new transportation backbone," he said.
Lloyd said the business model that will be born out will be different from country to country, but hyperloop infrastructure would probably be government funded in some cases and built through public-private partnerships in others.
Hyperloop Technologies is receiving inbound inquiries from all over the world, he said.
"There seems to be global movement getting behind this construct," he said. "We think the public wants it. We think the public is tired of having an antiquated transportation system that's based on technologies that were invented a century ago."
Hyperloop Technologies is not the only firm vying to make Musk's "fifth mode of transport" a reality. The similarly named Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has assembled a team of engineers from across the United States to develop the technology for a Los Angeles to San Francisco line.