Summer Craze Fowler

Summer Craze Fowler is the Chief Information Security Officer of Torc Robotics, a self-driving truck technology subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG. In the role she works with leadership to develop a strategic security and risk management program, implement security policies and procedures, manage security technologies, and oversee security awareness training. Torc's own materials list her among the company's senior hires as Chief Information Security Officer.

Career path

Fowler began her career as a software engineer, including a stint at Northrop Grumman. She later worked as a Technical Member at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory before moving into cybersecurity. At Carnegie Mellon University's CERT Division she served as Technical Director of Cybersecurity Risk & Resilience. She went on to serve as Chief Security Officer at USAA. Fowler then became Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer of Argo AI, an artificial intelligence company focused on self-driving vehicle technology, where she also led Facilities, Logistics, and Physical Security and directed the technical work behind the acquisition of a 300-person company in the European Union. From Argo AI she moved to Torc Robotics as Chief Information Security Officer, having also worked in senior enterprise cybersecurity roles at Motional, Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, and Carnegie Mellon University. She holds a BS in Computer Science and an MS in Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh.

Teaching, boards and public talks

Fowler teaches a graduate-level course in Cybersecurity Policy at Carnegie Mellon and also teaches in the CISO Executive Certificate Program. She has served as a cybersecurity expert on the audit committee of a healthcare organization with more than $1 billion in annual revenue and advises the board of an international fintech company in the same capacity. The Software Report named her one of the Top 25 Women Leaders in Cyber Security in 2021. She spoke in a session titled Infosec Leaders Need to Up Their Executive Game...Here's How, sponsored by IANS Research, on June 15, 2022, addressing the shift of the CISO role from technical expert to business executive. In a recorded conversation for Living Security's The Transformational CISO series, she discussed culture, goal-setting, and leadership alignment, including how to build cyber ambassadors across an organization. Describing her path into the field, Fowler said, "One of the reasons I got into cyber is because I love people, and a lot of people think, wow, it's strange."