Profile: Suzie Smibert, CTO, DTG Recycling

Bridging Transformation and Security

Suzie Smibert’s journey has been defined by transformation and resilience. Her career path has taken her through private equity turnarounds, large-scale financial services modernization, and now into her current role as Chief Technology Officer overseeing cybersecurity, privacy, and enterprise technology at DTG Recycling.

Suzie’s leadership philosophy is rooted in her ability to bridge the gap between technology and business priorities. She views her role not just as a technologist, but as an executive who ensures that innovation and cybersecurity directly enable growth. “To be good at cybersecurity, you must understand what the business is trying to accomplish across the organization,” she explains. This perspective has guided her across her career where she has consistently aligned complex technology initiatives with business strategy, balancing innovation with risk in a way that drives tangible value.

Resilience and Redefining Career Paths

Suzie is equally recognized for her ability to lead with resourcefulness, especially in environments where budgets are tight and expectations are high. Throughout her career, she has rarely had the luxury of infinite resources. Instead, she became skilled at finding creative solutions. This mindset not only delivered strong results at a fraction of the cost but also fostered innovation and agility within her teams. Her approach demonstrates a key aspect of her leadership: making bold, strategic choices that advance the business, even when operating under constraints.

Driving Change Through Technology

“Every company is a technology company,” she emphasizes. “And through technology you can change business processes.”
Suzie’s ability to deliver transformation at scale was further demonstrated at a Canadian banking provider (later acquired by CGI), where she was hired to lead cybersecurity, privacy, and client relations following a damaging cyber incident that had impacted several credit unions. She worked not only to stabilize the organization but also to raise the standard for transparency, disclosure, and partnership with credit union clients: “We were focused on doing the right thing for the members and those that bank with them.”

Today, at DTG Recycling, Suzie oversees the full technology portfolio, from cybersecurity and privacy to enterprise IT operations. The scope is vast, but she views it as a natural extension of her career.  She explains, “Whether it’s an application or end user support, you need to be in tune with how they’re architecting, delivering, and providing services.”

Leadership in Action

Suzie’s leadership style is grounded in pragmatism, business acumen, and decisiveness. She understands that technology leaders must often make difficult tradeoffs, recognizing that the ultimate goal is not simply stronger security, but stronger business outcomes. For her, that means ensuring security decisions never come at the cost of customer experience, revenue generation, or the organization’s ability to deliver on its core mission.

Her view of security is always framed through the lens of enabling business. “You can’t put security at the expense of servicing your customer or impacting the business in such a way that materially affects their ability to make or sell their product,” she says. That business-first mentality is what she considers the hallmark of a true executive leader.

She also emphasizes the importance of aligning technology strategy with business goals, describing it as a creative and transformative force. “The power of having a solid technology strategy that is aligned with the business strategy can transform an organization really fast in a very positive way,” she notes.

Innovation and AI: Balancing Promise with Risk

One of Suzie’s current priorities is harnessing the power of artificial intelligence in ways that optimize safety, efficiency, and customer experience. At her current organization, AI-driven video analytics now monitor facilities to improve operational safety by helping in areas like detecting whether protective gear is worn or streamlining customer service.

She explains, “We’ve been using AI from both a safety and efficiency perspective, like license plate scanning to pre-populate systems so we don’t have to ask customers the same questions”.

Yet she remains cautious. Her concern lies not only in technical vulnerabilities but in the social impact of unchecked AI models. “The use of AI is transforming how humans interact with technology…What type of bias or loopholes are in these systems and how will they impact how people think or behave? Could it radicalize?” she warns.

This dual lens, embracing innovation while scrutinizing risks, captures the essence of her leadership approach around the ever-expanding AI topic.

Women in Leadership: Owning the Room

As part of the broader theme of women in cybersecurity, Suzie reflects candidly on navigating male-dominated spaces. Her philosophy is unapologetic: “I’ve got purple hair. I’ve got an accent. I’m not apologizing. I don’t wear high heels anymore. I wear the brightest, loudest runners there are. I’m in people’s face, and I’ve earned that”.

With two decades of executive experience, she advises other women leaders to embrace authenticity over conformity: “You don’t need to wear a pantsuit with a turtleneck if that’s not who you are. People will see through it if you’re playing a role. Just play yourself, and trust that you deserve a promotion”.

She also shares practical strategies for commanding presence in boardrooms. Rather than sit quietly in a corner, she encourages women to position themselves close to the chair of the meeting and to take up space, spreading out their notes, coffee, or laptop to avoid making themselves small. Language matters as much as body language, she notes, urging women to speak with confidence, avoid diminishing words that sound like they are asking permission, and to state their ideas directly. And when a male colleague repeats something a woman has already said, she suggests reclaiming the moment with a simple acknowledgment: “Thank you for reinforcing what I just said.” These techniques, combined with authenticity and earned credibility, allow women to not just occupy a seat at the table, but to truly own the room.

Unapologetic Authenticity

Suzie exemplifies what it means to lead at the crossroads of cybersecurity, business transformation, and executive strategy. Her career demonstrates resilience in the face of bias, vision in the application of technology, and an unwavering commitment to authenticity.

Her story is both a testament to the evolving role of technology leaders and an inspiration for women in cybersecurity: to speak with confidence and transform organizations not just through code and controls, but through vision, courage, and unapologetic authenticity.