Jerry Fowler

Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation

• Lead global cybersecurity, infrastructure, ITGRC, and end-user support across a 47-country operating environment; report to the CIO with $4.2M in budget scope and direct board presentation cadence beginning in the current fiscal year.
• Own enterprise security governance across all equity markets and franchise locations, establishing global standards, a monthly operating cadence, and consistent accountability across a diverse distributed operating model.
• Reduced operating expense by 18% through vendor convergence, operating model simplification, and a strategic shift from internal infrastructure headcount to MSP-led support with U.S. and Mexico-based coverage.
• Converged seven global infrastructures into a centralized Microsoft 365 tenant, reducing fragmentation, strengthening identity governance, and establishing a consistent enterprise collaboration foundation.
• Built the company's first global security team, establishing enterprise-wide standards and a structured monthly engagement model covering trends, training outcomes, and risk priorities.
• Built the enterprise security governance model around NIST CSF 2.0, PCI DSS, SOX-aligned controls, and the company's first ISO 27001 certification path; hold architecture and security review authority to reject solutions that fail security requirements.
• Authored and implemented the company's first AI governance framework; serve as the practical AI office lead in partnership with Legal, directing policy, risk review, and committee participation for enterprise AI adoption.
• Working with Legal to establish the company's first enterprise risk management structure, expanding cybersecurity from technical oversight into a formal business risk governance function.
• Established the company's first formal third-party risk management program from inception; serve as sponsor, approver, designer, escalation point, and executive oversight owner, integrating security, privacy, legal, and vendor governance.
• Implemented the first IAM program and deployed Zero Trust and user access review discipline, eliminating ghost accounts and unknown active access across the enterprise.
• Architected and implemented the first enterprise tabletop exercise program along with foundational policies including incident response, BCDR, acceptable use, and AI policy; established an Executive Digital Body Guard service.
• Partnered with retail technology to architect a VDI approach for back-office operations, deploying monitoring and infrastructure capabilities to support security, scalability, and distributed store consistency.
• Drove CAB-based production change discipline, formal policy approval processes, and cross-functional governance accountability across security, infrastructure, GRC, Legal, sourcing, privacy, and operations.

Metrolina Greenhouses, Inc.

• Recruited to lead enterprise technology strategy and delivery for a $300M agricultural company, aligning IT operations, security, and business enablement across multi-facility, large-scale operations.
• Built the first private LTE LAN in the state to support a major IoT tracking initiative, enabling field-scale operational visibility and scalable connectivity across multi-thousand-acre environments.
• Implemented the organization's first formal cyber team and built an edge security program to strengthen protection across distributed and operationally complex infrastructure.
• Connected two multi-thousand-acre facilities to improve operational continuity and better serve three major enterprise customers.
• Reduced IT expenses by approximately $600K through converged procurement strategy across licenses, hardware, and MSP services; established standardized IT policy, service catalog, and SLA/KPI framework.

Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation

• Led infrastructure and operations support across retail and enterprise environments, improving service delivery, modernization planning, and operational consistency across distributed business units.
• Managed enterprise infrastructure platforms and operational support functions in a high-availability, distributed environment serving retail and corporate locations.
• Contributed to enterprise modernization, network management, and end-user service improvements during a foundational period of technology transformation.

Earlier Career

Additional leadership experience in infrastructure, operations, network, and enterprise technology roles that strengthened large-environment modernization, service leadership, and business-aligned technology execution. Consistent history of building structure where little existed, reducing technical debt, and delivering operational reliability under resource and timeline constraint.