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Don Fowler is chief executive of SumTotal Systems Inc. Mr. Fowler is a member of the board of directors. He has also served on the boards of ADAC Laboratories and TelCom Semiconductor and now serves on the board of Storage Engine Inc. Mr. Fowler is involved with various private companies through advisory or board memberships and served as CEO of eT Communications from 1996 to 1998 and as interim CEO of several other companies between 1996 and 2002. Mr. Fowler was a Senior Vice President at Tandem Computers from 1986 to 1996. Mr. Fowler also served in executive capacities with Bechtel Group from 1976 to 1986 and IBM from 1965 to 1976. Mr. Fowler received a B.S. in Mathematics and an M.B.A from the University of Washington in Seattle.
Don Fowler became chief executive of SumTotal Systems Inc. in November 2005. Fowler guides the strategy and oversees the global operations of SumTotal.
During his 45-year career he has held executive or management posts with companies such as Tandem Computers Bechtel IBM and Boeing. Fowler also served as chief executive of two start-up companies that enjoyed rapid revenue growth under his tenure.
From 1998 through 2005 Fowler was a director mentor and advisor to a number of early stage tech firms. He helped CEOs and venture capitalists put programs in place to develop products address legal issues hire and retain employees communicate with investors and drive sales.
From 1996 to 1998 Fowler was CEO of eT Communications which made a communications product for monitoring alarms and remotely reading meters. He and his team secured the first of the company’s customers and put the firm on a well-launched trajectory. In 1996 Fowler took the helm of Worlds Inc. a maker of products for creating virtual reality spaces on the Internet in an effort to turn the company around and sell it. He took sales at the firm from $1.5 million to $7.1 million in less than twelve months raised $12 million in venture capital and sold the company.
Before that he was senior vice president and general manager for the Solutions Products Group at Tandem Computers. During his time at Tandem he oversaw a $700-million global business unit with 1 000 employees. He led his group in divesting a number of companies and acquiring others. And Fowler played a key role in communicating the value of these transactions to Wall Street investors.
From 1976 to 1986 he held numerous senior-level posts at Bechtel an engineering and construction company with global operations. As CIO he ran Bechtel’s Information Services Group and created a profit center with over $350 million in revenue. Prior to Bechtel Fowler spent 11 years with IBM during which he climbed from systems engineer to being responsible for sales and support across the western United States.
He began his professional career with Boeing in 1960. While there he and a colleague developed the world’s first library search-and-retrieval computer system.
Fowler sits on the boards of Infotek Storage Engine and Inscape Data. He serves on the President’s Cabinet at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo as well as the executive committee. He received both his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Washington.
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