STAUFFER Welcomes Summer Swigart as Principal Consultant
Creative agency STAUFFER is thrilled to announce the addition of Summer Swigart as principal consultant. Summer is an accomplished software engineer with 20 years of experience delivering tech solutions that provide successful outcomes for her clients. She comes to STAUFFER from BENlabs, a Bill Gates company, where she managed several multidisciplinary teams as director of product and helped drive the company's growth to over $140M in revenue. Now, Summer brings her wealth of dynamic experience and talent for delivering enterprise software products and business strategy to STAUFFER.
"I've known and worked with Chris for more than 15 years and have always been impressed by STAUFFER’s innovation and implementation of best practices here," noted Summer. "They deliver exceptional digital solutions and have grown effective teams that back them up with integrity and accountability."
"Summer has long been a dream hire of mine, and now the stars have finally aligned," added STAUFFER CEO Chris Stauffer. "She not only brings hands-on expertise across the entire lifecycle of what we do as an agency but also has the leadership capacity to get projects across the finish line. She does so with finesse, expertly guiding clients' business objectives while skillfully navigating our internal teams' needs toward successful collaborative outcomes. That's a rare combination in this industry, and we believe clients will be as thrilled as we are to have her on our team."
Years before working with BENlabs, Summer was part of tech startup The Groop. She utilised her traditional software engineering background here, working her way up from web development to director of technology. It was also at The Groop that Summer first met STAUFFER, leading to their collaboration on several successful online software and consulting projects.
Born in Guam, then raised in Hawaii, Summer attended UC Irvine, where she initially studied fine art. "One day my grandmother sat me down and said, 'You have plenty of time to be a starving artist,'" recalled Summer of the advice that led her to investigate computer science, which grew into a lifelong passion and varied career. Building on her traditional software engineering focus and her specialisation in information systems, Summer has made a name for herself as a versatile and adaptive tech consultant.
Summer and Chris would cross paths again, working together on a hallmark project for Major League Soccer (MLS) while she was COO for Drupal-specialising tech firm WorkHabit. Together, the pair helped build a platform for the MLS club sites, enabling them to spin up new offshoot sites in a scalable and efficient manner. Summer also credits WorkHabit's wide-ranging mandate, "helping to sell contracts all the way to delivery," with developing her hands-on management style.
Moving on from WorkHabit, Summer spent several years as practice director of professional services for Acquia, a software-as-a-service company. Summer spearheaded a department that delivered enterprise products and services for Drupal's open-source web content management platform that brought clients' visions to life. In addition, she could once again flex her Drupal muscles alongside Acquia CEO Dries Buytaert, the creator of the free and open-source web content management system. While at Acquia, Summer's product services department was experiencing massive growth, which fed into the company's billion-dollar acquisition.
In her current work, Summer prefers to remain "platform-agnostic," determining the best ROI for clients based on their desired outcomes. Constantly immersing herself in emerging technologies in the fast-moving media landscape, she enjoys exploring AI-driven products and loves to help build products that positively impact the lives of others.
"Building great products that customers love drives the success of software solutions across the board," noted Summer. "Lately, every platform usually has its instantiation of AI, and these integrations are becoming more and more important to that every day."
With the tech industry pushing for more gender inclusivity in recent years, Summer's nearly two decades of experience in the field is rare. Throughout her career, she has dedicated herself to breaking down barriers by supporting and mentoring women in tech. She has worked through several organisations, including Women in Tech and WomenHack, to encourage and empower women to pursue careers in technology.
"Summer brings a valuable perspective to our executive table as a woman," remarked Chris. "We firmly believe that diverse perspectives bring immense value to our clients, and with Summer's presence, we can enhance our ability to foster gender parity internally and in the tech industry at large. She is incredibly passionate about this cause, and we look forward to supporting her in championing it."
Summer enjoys surfing, hiking, and making art in her free time. She notes that carrying on her passion for visual art fuels her devotion to tech-driven problem-solving. "As an artist, I attribute creativity and critical thinking to the success of my compositions and solution-oriented development," concluded Summer. "I bring the same philosophy to my work, collaborating with my designers and engineers to help solve our client's business challenges."
