Gerhard Eschelbeck, Google's former Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Vice President of Security and Privacy Engineering, has been named CISO at Kodiak Robotics, Inc, a self-driving trucking company. 

Eschelbeck will draw on more than 25 years of experience to guide Kodiak's cybersecurity and data security strategy and team. As Kodiak's CISO, he will focus on further enhancing the security of the company's cloud and on-premises systems and its fleet of autonomous trucks. In addition, he will lead the deployment of new protocols for the company's broader data security team.

Most recently, as CISO for Aurora, Eschelbeck established the cybersecurity organization and developed the security program and architecture for their autonomous vehicles. Eschelbeck has built a distinguished cyber and data security career by creating and championing foundational new technologies. 

Eschelbeck has built high-performance multi-national teams in the U.S., Europe and Asia that have launched transformative security technologies. He is regarded as one of the world's foremost network and system security experts. Before Eschelbeck's roles with Aurora Innovation and Google, he held several Chief Technology Officer and executive engineering roles for companies including Sophos, Webroot and Qualys. He also served as Digital and Technology Advisor to the International Olympic Committee for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and as a member of the supervisory board for Deutsche Bank. He holds a doctorate and master's degree in computer science from the University of Linz, Austria.

"Ensuring the security of critical systems like Kodiak's is vital, and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to be part of the team that makes it happen," Eschelbeck says. 

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