Scott Singer Named Interim Managing Director of CMDC

The Technological Leadership Institute (TLI) at the University of Minnesota (UMN) today named Scott Singer as Interim Managing Director of the Center for Medical Device Cybersecurity (CMDC). Singer takes over the role from Bill Aerts, who will be retiring at the end of this month.

“We are thrilled to have Scott come aboard to lead CMDC through this challenging period of transition,” said Allison Hubel, Director of TLI. “The Center has benefited greatly from Bill Aert’s wisdom and expertise. We are confident that Scott can provide the stability and leadership we need as we plan the next phase of CMDC’s growth.”

The CMDC is an association of medical device manufacturers, health care providers and researchers that works to increase public awareness and promote industry best practices in the area of medical device cybersecurity. As medical devices become more complex, they become more vulnerable to hackers and pose a threat to health care computer systems, increasing the risk of cybertheft and ransom attacks on computer networks within the health care industry.

Singer is the co-founder of CyberNINES, a company that helps Department of Defense vendors comply with agency cybersecurity requirements and best practices, and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Before that he was at PaR Systems, where he was Chief Information Officer. At PaR, he had responsibility for information systems, global quality, export control, security, and continuous process improvement.

Previously, Singer spent 16 years with Medtronic in various leadership positions including the European Infrastructure Manager, the Vascular division CIO, and the head of global security.

Singer is the past board chair for the Minnesota Technology Association (MnTech), past President of the UW Madison NROTC Alumni Association and past board member of InfraGard. In June 2021, he testified before Congress on the costs to small business to comply with the DoDs Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). He currently chairs the C3PAO Stakeholder Forum (C3PAOForum.org).

He has an MBA in Information Systems from the University of MN, Carlson School of Management, and a BS is Meteorology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He also has a certification in Joint Professional Military Education from The Naval War College.

Outgoing managing director Bill Aerts’ leadership of CMDC was just part of a remarkable career at the forefront of the medical device security field. He founded the Archimedes Center for Healthcare and Device Security at the University of Michigan in 2017 and served as its full-time executive director until joining the CMDC in October of 2021.

Prior to that, he served as the Global Director of Product Security within Medtronic’s Global Security Office. He helped to build Medtronic’s original Information Security Program and has created and championed information and product security programs in the insurance, transportation, retail and healthcare industries.