CIONET

This February, CIONET hosted CIONEXT | Mastering Complexity, powered by Hitachi Vantara. We're thrilled to present a new episode of our #LeadershipDeepDive series, featuring Kalman Tiboldi, CTO and Founder at GemOne–TVH. In this insightful conversation, Hendrik Deckers explores why mastering technological complexity is essential to future-proofing businesses. Kalman shares how TVH is transitioning away from legacy systems toward a capability-based architecture, built on a composite model that focuses internal development on core differentiating systems. He emphasizes the importance of simplification—untangling legacy “spaghetti” architectures and removing unnecessary layers. Data, he says, must be treated as a strategic asset: governed centrally and managed via data fabric and virtualization to ensure AI readiness without duplicating datasets. On the infrastructure side, TVH is executing a cloud-first strategy, gradually moving toward full cloud adoption while currently operating in a hybrid environment. For Kalman, AI is not the destination, but a tool—used to improve decision-making, boost productivity, and turn static manuals into intelligent knowledge sources. Looking ahead, he envisions AI agents automating business logic and enabling autonomous enterprises, while preserving the unique role of human intuition. Curious to learn more? Watch the full interview now!

#CIONEXT | The End of IT Leadership? is around the corner! Watch the full #LeadershipDeepDive interview with Sharon Prior who will be our panellist on April 3rd at 15:00 CET. Don't forget to register

CIONEXT is just around the corner! Don't miss this exclusive opportunity to get to know one of our panellists – Tom Tanghe, General Manager ITC EMEA at Daikin Europe – and watch his full #LeadershipDeepDive interview. Have you already registered to join us on April 3rd at 15:00 CET? Now's the time

Watch the full #LeadershipDeepDive interview with José Antonio López - Group CIO at TOUS - who will be our panellist at CIONEXT | The End of IT Leadership on the 3rd of April! It's high time to register

Are you ready for CIONEXT | The End of IT Leadership? Watch the full #LeadershipDeepDive interview with Aaron Stafford - Group Senior Director of Global Security, Cloud Infrastructure & ERP Operations at ASICS Technology - who will be our panellist on April 3rd at 15:00 CET. Don't forget to register

Watch the full #LeadershipDeepDive interview with John Walsh - VP & CTO at Fujitsu - who will be our panellist at CIONEXT | The End of IT Leadership on the 3rd of April! It's high time to register

This February, CIONET hosted CIONEXT | Mastering Complexity, powered by Hitachi Vantara. We're excited to share with you a new episode of our #LeadershipDeepDive series, featuring Isabelle Droll, CIO for Airline, Corporate, Hotels & Resorts, and Sustainability at TUI. Isabelle collaborated with us on this program together with André Exner. In this insightful interview, Isabelle delves into TUI's digital transformation journey within the highly complex travel and tourism industry. She explains how TUI is working to unify fragmented systems across markets into a single, global platform designed to deliver seamless and personalized customer experiences. Together with Hendrik Deckers, Isabelle explores the strategic role of data integration, cloud migration, and AI-driven personalization in navigating complexity and boosting operational efficiency. From predictive maintenance and route optimization to dynamic packaging, TUI's key initiatives are deeply rooted in strong collaboration between IT and the business. Isabelle also emphasizes the evolving role of IT—from cost control to value creation—highlighting the importance of trusted supplier partnerships, nearshore development hubs, and internal AI upskilling programs. Curious to learn more? Watch the full interview now!

Listen to the full #LeadershipDeepDive interview with Jay Subramanian, GM of Core Storage Platforms at Hitachi Vantara, who will be our panellist at CIONEXT | Mastering Complexity on the 19th of February! It's high time to register

In the newest episode of CIONET's #LeadershipDeepDive interview, Steven Huels, VP & GM of AI Business, Product, and Strategy at Red Hat, explores the recent technological advancements in the realm of AI. Red Hat, recognized for its robust enterprise solutions, emphasizes open-source principles and platforms, which have been pivotal in virtualization and containerization. Steven highlights AI's transformative impact on businesses, stressing that it has evolved from a futuristic concept to an essential element of current business strategies. Currently at Red Hat, the AI strategy involves creating a composable platform that seamlessly integrates AI tools and models, supporting varied use cases from training to deployment. Hendrik discusses with Steven the advancements in AI accessibility, efficiency, and integration today, and in the future where AI models are more consumable and seamlessly embedded in business applications. Curious to know more? Don't miss this inspiring conversation and watch the full interview now! #DigitalLeadership #CIO #CXO #CTO #CIONET #innovation #technology #data #cloud #AI #OpenSource #RedHat

Lisa Spelman - Corporate VP and GM of Intel Products & Solutions at Intel will be our guest speaker at CIOFEST on the 21st of March! If you're a CIONET Member or would like to become one, make sure you register to CIOFEST in your country here: https://www.cionet.com/events/ciofest CIOFEST will also mark the launch of the CIOFEST Cookbook No. 3, where Lisa shares her recipe for digital success. Don't forget to pre-order your copy here: https://www.cionet.com/cookbook3 and stay on top of what is relevant for top CIOs! In this #LeadershipDeepDive Hendrik Deckers discussed with Lisa Intel's role in providing computing solutions across various platforms, emphasising the company's transition from a hardware focus to integrating software and manufacturing. They talked about the importance of AI development, its ethical usage, and democratisation. She addressed the challenges faced by many industries due to rapid digitisation and the evolving role of IT and CIOs in businesses as well as Intel's commitment to sustainability, security, and future technological advancements, particularly in AI and data centre innovations. Curious to know more? Make sure you watch the full interview! #CIONET #CIOcommunity #CIO #CXO #CDO #CTO #DigitalLeadership #Cloud #Multicloud #Hybridcloud #Innovation #AI #RedHat #Intel

We had the pleasure to host Dirk Olufs, EVP & CIO at DHL Express at the panel of CIONEXT | The Fabric of Future-Proof Organisations that we hosted on the 18th of October. Now we're delighted to publish the #LeadershipDeepDive interview, full of insights from one of the biggest logistics companies in the world! In this episode, Hendrik Deckers discussed with Dirk about DHL Express's operations, focusing on its digital and customer-centric approach, underlining the role technology plays in improving customer service in logistics. They tackled DHL's IT system evolution, emphasising the importance of innovation in the process. Dirk also delved into the integration of new technologies to enhance DHL's delivery and tracking capabilities, underlining the role of IT in streamlining processes and ensuring efficient service delivery. He explained in detail how the IT organisation is managed globally and underlined the need for standardisation to support global operations effectively. How does this logistics giant deal with the growing pace of service delivery? What new technologies are key to innovation and staying on top of the game? Watch the full interview to find out!

Antonio Queiroz, Chief Digital Officer at Euroclear, is a panellist at CIONEXT | Mastering the Cloud on the 29th of November! It's the last moment to register

Karl Davies-Barrett, Global Partner CTO at Microsoft, will join us as a panellist at CIONEXT | Mastering the Cloud on 29th November! Register now at www.cionext.com and don't miss the discussion on all things cloud: ✅ How complexity impedes progress. How do we optimise processes and maximise value? ✅ How to align business goals with coherent IT and cloud strategies? ✅ How to navigate the challenges of hybrid and multi-cloud setups and keep our options open? In this #LeadershipDeepDive interview, Hendrik Deckers discussed with Karl Davies-Barrett Microsoft's mission to democratise technology, emphasising its cloud-first strategy, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the importance of integrating business value with technology, as well as the cultural shift at the company under the leadership of Satya Nadella. Karl also highlighted the significance of AI at Microsoft, its 3% contribution to cloud platform revenue, and upcoming AI capabilities. He addressed various cloud strategies, including the complexities of multi-cloud environments, the 'lift and shift' approach, and hybrid cloud. He acknowledged the reality of vendor lock-in, advocating for due diligence and informed choices in cloud services. Watch the full interview to find out more and don't forget to book your virtual seat at CIONEXT | Mastering the Cloud: www.cionext.com!

Colin Fisher, Global Senior Director, Cloud Partner Ecosystem at Red Hat, is a panellist at CIONEXT | Mastering the Cloud on the 29th of November! Register now

Colin Bannon, CTO at BT Business, is a panellist at CIONEXT | The Fabric of Future-proof Organisations on the 18th of October! Register now

Olivier Gibert - Global CTO at Carrefour - will join us on the 18th of October at CIONEXT | The Fabric of Future-proof Organisations. Register now

“We are the plumbers of the Internet,” says Gordon Thomson, VP Service Provider EMEA at Cisco. Register now

Bart Kerkhofs, VP IT at Bridgestone EMIA, will join us on the 18th of October at CIONEXT | The Fabric of Future-Proof Organisations! Register now

Davio Larnout, Co-founder and CEO at Radix, is making waves in the world of AI. Watch the #CIONET Leadership Deep Dive Interview as he discusses the impact and potential of AI in various industries. Radix is a pioneering AI company that delivers transformative solutions with the objective of creating real impact for clients through AI leverage. Learn from Davio's remarkable journey, driven by his passion for entrepreneurship and technology. Recognise the critical significance of understanding AI's capacity and the value of experimentation in uncovering its true potential. Davio recommends rethinking your organisation's processes and business models to fully harness AI's transformative power and unlock its boundless possibilities. In this #LeadershipDeepDive Interview with Hendrik Deckers, Davio explains how Radix is using various AI categories, like deep learning and generative AI, to help automate cognitive tasks and push the boundaries of innovation. He illustrates this by explaining how the implementation of natural language processing has transformed the job-matching process at VDAB. CIONET invites you to watch this new episode to gain insights into Radix's strategic commitment, its approach to centralisation and decentralisation, and its focus on building AI applications that deliver tangible and meaningful value.

Artie Debidien, EVP/CIO Consumer Wholesale Enterprise at KPN, was one of the speakers at the international virtual conference CIONEXT on April 26. Hendrik Deckers meets her in the office of the Dutch telecom KPN to interview about her broad educational experience, views on innovation, and how she developed as a digital leader. “KPN will always go for sustainable innovation,” says Artie, “and everyone should be part of it — it's a dance floor wherein you ask everyone to dance.” The focus on teamwork and common passing through mistakes and failures distinguishes her approach to leadership and innovation. From the interview, we learned that with every innovative enterprise comes a scale of risks and new value where the latter needs to be justified. AI is a true needle-shifter, being known for the fears about security and privacy it produces in the wider public. Artie believes AI will not percolate into business at an apocalyptic tempo and the benefits it brings will be distributed at a safe pace. “You need to drive the change” is her answer and she stresses the talent people bring into continuous innovation. How is Agile working at a company with a 1000 people in IT? How does KPN innovate on a daily basis? And finally, why did Artie change from a lion to an elephant in her fascinating, diverse career? Watch the full Leadership Deep Dive interview with Artie Debidien to find the answers and perhaps discover why always shooting for the moon is a worthy tactic.

“Red Hat is an enterprise software company with an open source development model that is helping the world to consume open source software in a very productive manner”. Over the past 30 years Red Hat grew from 100 to 20 000 employees and over the last 5 years the company's revenue has doubled. In this #LeadershipDeepDive interview Hendrik Deckers talks to Hans Roth, Senior Vice President & General Manager Red Hat EMEA, about managing such an impressive growth and the key components that allowed the company reach this size: people, culture, innovative, open source development model and the ecosystem of clients, partners, integrators and hyperscalers - just to name a few. Hans explained how he currently sees the evolving role of the CIO in organisations, how Red Hat helps companies be more successful and how providing choice for customers has always been a vital part of Red Hat's DNA. Hendrik also asked Hans about the open hybrid cloud strategy, the role of digital sovereignty in today's world and the culture of passion cultivated at the organisation. Find out more and watch the full interview now!

Arlene Buehler, CIO/CDO at DB Cargo is the keynote speaker at #CIONEXT, our flipped virtual conference next week, April 26th. Register here https://www.cionext.com/17 and find out how top organisations are driving innovation! In this #LeadershipDeepDive Interview Hendrik Deckers talked with Arlene Buehler about the challenges DB Cargo faces. With 31 000 employees and operating across Europe and in China, DB Cargo is the biggest rail freight provider in Europe. „One train can replace 52 containers”, Arlene pointed and this translates to a gigantic reduction of CO2 emissions. Bringing more traffic from the road to rail is DB Cargo's mission enabled by Automation and Digitalisation. „I've always been a big fan of business and IT fusion”, says Arlene. And she brings this motto into the organisation. She puts strong emphasis on close communication and collaboration by creating communities and being sensitive and open to the challenges the business and partners are facing. „I'm also a believer that we should not reinvent the wheel. There's a lot of good practices from our competition, but also from our partners. And I'm also a very big fan of co-creation.” Having lived and worked across four continents, it is not surprising that dialogue and effective communication are key elements of Arlene's leadership and management style. How does Arlene see the success of innovation? How can AI detect train damages? Can DB Cargo have an Amazon-like interface? What is DB Cargo's data strategy and what role AI plays in it? How to achieve work-life balance in today's world and why is it so important? Watch the full interview to learn more and don't forget to join us online on April 26th and watch Arlene with fellow panellists at the next CIONEXT conference. Register here https://www.cionext.com/17 #LeadershipDeepDive #AI #Automation #CIO #CxO #DigitalLeaders #DigitalLeadership #CIONET #innovation #technology #data #cloud #UiPath

Catriona Campbell – Client Technology & Innovation Officer at EY UK&Ireland is the author of the intriguing book “AI by design: A Plan for Living with Artificial Intelligence”. She is our keynote speaker at the CIONEXT conference on 26 April 2023 sponsored by UiPath. In this #LeadershipDeepDive interview Hendrik Deckers interviews Catriona about her projects, leadership style and innovation at large. “We have to transform business and for that we need to have the capital investment, the technology infrastructure and the talent for this”, says Catriona Campbell who frequently stresses the importance of people in the great business puzzle. From Catriona's experience we learn that AI needs to be carefully harnessed for the benefits of humanity, with ethical issues and the guardrails deeply encoded into its core. EY innovates close to the client, with a people-facing, accessible, and scalable approach. Automation is certainly another important factor in the journey towards the future and Catriona praises the progress in that field. What is the double diamond methodology in innovation? Does the Goldie chatbot at EY know all the answers? And finally, should we be afraid of AI? Watch the whole Leadership Deep Dive Interview with Catriona Campbell to learn the answers and get to know Catriona in the challenges she faces in the jousting field of innovation.

Niklas Sundberg – Senior Vice President & CIO at ASSA ABLOY Global Solutions & author of “Sustainable IT Playbook for Technology Leaders”, an innovative and practical guide for CxOs on Sustainable IT – was our keynote speaker at the Race To Net Zero CIONEXT Conference on 7 December 2022, sponsored by @BT and @PaloAltoNetworks. In this #LeadershipDeepDive interview, Hendrik Deckers asks Niklas about the relation between IT and the Sustainability Agenda. “Just within the ICT sector today, we're consuming roughly 3-4 percent of the world's electricity”, says Niklas Sundberg in an attempt to illustrate how important the role of CIOs may prove in environmental challenges. Big questions were the motor of this captivating interview packed with precise data. With Niklas' playbook having the potential to be a gamechanger among digital leaders, the gentlemen tackled world-important issues such as circular economy, green reporting and legal solutions, or hyperscalers and their influence. How to move to the cloud without punches of conscience as to your impact on the environment? What is the process to assess sustainability progress in a business? Is the future about limiting more than just carbon emissions? You will find answers to these questions and more on Niklas Sundberg's personal story, including his adventure with ice hockey, in the full interview. #DigitalLeadership #CIO #CXO #CTO #Sustainability #Government #CIONET #innovation #technology #data #GreenIT

Robbert van Rutten – Senior Vice President & Downstream CIO at Shell is one of the 6 Finalists of the European Digital Leader of the Year Award 2023 in the B2B category. In this #LeadershipDeepDive interview @Hendrik Deckers asked Robbert about Shell's “Powering Progress Program” and the company's ambition to become net zero by 2050, creating cleaner energy solutions (including low carbon fuels and EV charging stations) and the challenge to meet the ever increasing energy demand. “Roughly about half of the CO2 reduction that we need to achieve by 2050 has to come from technologies that are currently not developed or deployed yet”, says Robbert. Robbert also explained the idea behind the Market Hub e-commerce platform, which provides a B2C experience for B2B customers at Shell and talked about the market standard first strategy, next to reversing the strategy to rely heavily on IT transformation partners and bringing back insourcing of technical delivery capability. Can sustainability and Net Zero goals be reached without a grand ambition to build out a global low-carbon energy system? Is data democratisation going to change large organisations very quickly? What are the strategies to attract and retain top talent? Watch the full interview to find out!

Johan Haelterman, Chairman of the Executive Committee at NBN (Bureau for Standardisation) talks about NBN as a knowledge provider and how standards can be a source of wisdom. NBN is a publisher of standards located in Belgium. They are responsible for the development, publication and sales of standards. What NBN does is capture the knowledge of experts and make this knowledge available. Together with its sector operators, NBN acts as the Belgian knowledge centre for all activities related to standardisation. They play a societal role by helping companies, consumers, public authorities and other stakeholders to strive for higher quality within an international competitive context. Today, NBN has a portfolio of more than 42,000 standards. And more than 1,000 are added every year. Both in our professional and private lives, standards are everywhere. In this #LeadershipDeepDive Interview, Hendrik Deckers talked with Johan about the future of standards and what role NBN plays as a knowledge provider. They also talked about different standards and how standards are developed. As well as their purpose and benefits, and the role of standards in the race to net zero. Why are standards important in business and in society? What is the purpose of standards? How many standards exist? How is the process of publishing standards? What's the role of standards in becoming more sustainable? Watch the full interview to find out!

Alex Bowles – Partner & Head of Infrastructure and Service Management at John Lewis Partnership – is nominated to the #EDLOTY Award in the B2C category! Register here: https://www.cionext.com/16 and join us on 1st February 2023 at #CIONEXT | Let's talk Money to find out how the Finalists of the European Digital Leader of the Year are managing their 2023 technology budgets and what measures are being taken to save money in this pivotal year. The John Lewis Partnership is the UK's largest employee owned business and two retail brands: John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarkets. In this #LeadershipDeepDive interview Hendrik Deckers discussed with Alex the exceptional business model of the John Lewis Partnership, where each employee becomes a “partner” and owns shares of the company and the impact on the business, employee motivation and company culture. Alex explained how the organisation transitioned from a system that allowed only 50 000 customers to shop weekly to over 200 000 customers and, at the same time, significantly enhanced customer experience. Was moving away from a project-focused to a program-focused IT environment what enabled that change? How has customer behaviour changed in the past 2-3 years and how did it affect the John Lewis Partnership? What actions have been taken to make sure ethics and sustainability are at the core of the brand? Watch the full interview to find out!

Jean-Christophe Witz – CIO at Husky Injection Molding Systems – is nominated to the #EDLOTY Award in the B2B category! Register here: https://www.cionext.com/16 and join us on 1st February at #CIONEXT | Let's talk Money to find out how the Finalists of the European Digital Leader of the Year 2023 use technology to save money “with IT” and not “on IT”! Husky is a leading global technology company that serves the medical and packaging industries. Operating in over 140 countries, since 1953 Husky has been pioneering technologies that enable the delivery of essential needs to the global community with industry-leading expertise and service. In this #LeadershipDeepDive Interview Hendrik Deckers talked with Jean-Christophe about developing and redefining Husky's operating model for the Beverage and Packaging Line of Business. This huge program started in 2017 and led to significant changes in the operating model by cutting costs, allowing for breakthrough innovation and confirming quality and speed improvement. Jean-Christophe explained also how he deals with change management and above all, culture and people change by cooperating closely with the leadership: „This is what I love in transformation and really my passion around seeing teams evolving, setting up first what's the end goal. And what we've done just concretely is working with the leadership to work together to establish what's our future state as a team.” Watch the full interview to learn more!

Christian Palomino – Global IT VP at Meliá Hotels International – is nominated to the #EDLOTY Award in the B2C category! Register here: https://www.cionext.com/16 and join us on 1st February at #CIONEXT | Let's talk Money to find out how the Finalists of the European Digital Leader of the Year 2023 use technology to save money “with IT” and not “on IT”! Meliá Hotels International is the biggest Spanish company, third in Europe and the biggest leisure focused hotel company in the world with more than 390 hotels throughout more than 40 countries. In this #LeadershipDeepDive Interview Hendrik Deckers talked with Chris about current challenges for the hotel industry and Meliá Hotels International's journey to become data and cloud centred. “It's very beautiful to see how digital transformation that started with technology now is permeating to all sides of the business. It's something amazing”, says Chris and adds: „Many people say that digitalisation is about processes, people, and technology, and I don't agree. You need data in that equation, because that's what makes you really agile as a company, because you are able to understand what's going on inside and outside of your company”. In 22 months, Chris and his team implemented agile and switched to cloud, introducing a new reservation system. This gigantic change cut costs and allowed the organisation to respond faster to change. In this inspiring conversation Chris talks about the importance of diversity and new opportunities that arose after the pandemic. Watch the full interview to know more!

Daniel Gebler – Founder & CTO at Picnic – is nominated to the #EDLOTY Award in the B2C category! Register here: https://www.cionext.com/16 and join us on 1st February at #CIONEXT | Let's talk Money to find out how the Finalists of the European Digital Leader of the Year 2023 manage their IT budgets in times when higher rates of return are demanded from business leaders! Picnic is the world's fastest growing online retail supermarket that was founded in 2015 and over the past 7 years grew to ca. 1 billion EUR in revenue and gathered a customer base of 2 million users in 3 countries that place 300 thousand orders each week. In this #LeadershipDeepDive Interview Hendrik Deckers discussed with Daniel the key milestones and reorganisation points in a rapidly growing scale-up that a successful company has to navigate effectively, as well as changes in the role of a CTO every step of the way. Daniel explained the design behind Picnic's end-to-end eCommerce & eLogistics platform, why RPA or Low Code/No Code solutions were not a scalable long-term option for Picnic and what alternatives were implemented. How to develop a business model where customers can shop online but still pay the same for their groceries as in a traditional supermarket? How can retail catch up with premium customers' needs? How to attract the right talent and empower tech employees? Watch the full interview to find out!

Åshild Hanne Larsen – VP Subsurface Excellence & Digital at Equinor – is nominated to the #EDLOTY Award in the B2B category! Register here: https://www.cionext.com/16 and join us on 1st February at #CIONEXT | Let's talk Money to find out how the Finalists of the European Digital Leader of the Year 2023 use technology to save money “with IT” and not “on IT”! Equinor is an energy company with major focus on petroleum but also active in the renewable sector – producing energy from wind & solar power and expanding its business by adding low carbon energy, carbon capture and storage to its portfolio. In this #LeadershipDeepDive Interview Hendrik Deckers asked Åshild about the company's journey to becoming data-driven and various data tools that are currently in place at Equinor. Interestingly, gaming technology and AI is being used in the program called “AIM” – Artificial Intelligence Maturity – to design optimal wells, their location and trajectory. They discussed the company's roadmap towards “net zero” by 2050, as well as creation and use of the Reservoir Experience Platform that helped Equinor develop competitive advantage on the market. Additionally, Åshild explained in more detail her engagement in initiatives such as Girl Tech Fest and her other efforts in supporting women and girls aspiring to work in the technology sector. Don't miss this inspiring conversation and watch the full interview! Table of contents: 01:13 | Introduction 02:00 | Åshild's background 05:46 | About Equinor 09:24 | Åshild's role 11:25 | Data lake program 13:13 | The Reservoir Experience Platform 16:29 | AI at Equinor 18:39 | The Fiber Optics Project 21:23 | IT & Digital at Equinor 24:02 | Cloud & Cybersecurity 26:27 | The role of CIO 29:23 | Management & leadership style 36:07 | MBTI: strengths 37:50 | Passions & women in technology 44:14 | Alternative career paths 46:44 | MBTI: development areas 49:15 | Values 53:16 | Mentors 57:01 | Most brilliant failure 01:01:39 | Best and worst things in life 01:05:38 | Personal mantra 1:07:45 | Advice for aspiring digital leaders

Tomasz Blicharski – EVP and Board Member at Żabka Polska, Managing Director at Żabka Future – is nominated to the #EDLOTY Award in the B2C category! Register here: https://www.cionext.com/16 and join us on 1st February at #CIONEXT | Let's talk Money to find out how the Finalists of the European Digital Leader of the Year 2023 increase their wallet and market share to help bring the best possible business results to their organisations! Żabka is a convenience services ecosystem based in Poland with over 9000 convenience stores. Its innovative approach to the younger generation of consumers resulted in opening the biggest chain of autonomous stores in Europe. During the pandemic the company expanded its business by launching a daily catering service and a SaaS marketplace for catering providers. In this #LeadershipDeepDive Interview Hendrik Deckers asked Tomasz how to create accessible autonomous services, attract new consumers using innovation and design digital products – Apps in particular – that catch the eye of the clients, create buzz but also inspire long-term loyalty. They discussed Żabka's digital transformation which started off with data analytics, machine learning and AI, and how these tools are currently used to optimise store locations and product offerings. What are Tomasz's predictions for the future of retail and convenience services? How to make sure innovations are customer-focused and bring value to the business? Watch the full interview to find out!

Geert Goethals – CIO at Proximus - is nominated for the #EDLOTY Award in the B2C category! Register here: https://www.cionext.com/16 and join us on 1st February 2023 at #CIONEXT | Let's talk Money to find out how the Finalists of the European Digital Leader of the Year 2023 are running their IT departments and business processes more efficiently. Proximus is the leading network-based telecommunications company operating in Belgian and international markets, providing communication, data, and a wide range of multimedia content services, anytime and anywhere; also for enterprises. What are the current main drivers of change and burning issues at Proximus? Is the company taking any specific measures to mitigate the consequences of the current global situation? In this #LeadershipDeepDive Interview, Hendrik Deckers discusses with Geert how Proximus has evolved over the years - and how their focus is on becoming a custodian of digital experiences, as well as behaving and operating as a digitally-native company to realise their IT goals and ambitions. They talked about the step-by-step modernisation and simplification process of the IT landscape within Proximus over the past two years and how this changed their architecture. Geert also explained how the Agile way of working influenced their NPS scores, time-to-market and employee engagement. Where is Proximus in its IT transformation today? What were the key lessons learned during the process? How does their new IT operating model work? Watch the full interview to find out!

Carlo Bozzoli – Global CIO at Enel Group – is nominated to the #EDLOTY Award in the B2C category! Register here: https://www.cionext.com/16 and join us on 1st February 2023 at #CIONEXT | Let's talk Money to find out how the Finalists of the European Digital Leader of the Year are managing their 2023 technology budgets and what measures are being taken to save money in this pivotal year. Enel Group is an energy company that serves 75 million customers connected to their grid in 40 countries. It was one of the first traditional organisations of its size in the industry to move entirely to cloud – the process was finalised already in 2018. In this #LeadershipDeepDive Interview Hendrik Deckers discussed with Carlo how the organisation was evolving from an asset-based company to a platform-based company – by optimising its system portfolio and moving away from customisation towards more standardisation. Carlo also explained the process behind developing an internal software company, which reduced the cost of the application development internally by 30%, time of development by 20% and at the same time improved the quality of applications by 60%. How to stay sustainable in spite of operating in the cloud? Is it at all possible? How to work in an organisation that doesn't have a separate IT budget to get the best results? Watch the full interview to find out!

Hans Geurts – CIO at VTTI – is nominated to the #EDLOTY Award in the B2B category! Register here: https://www.cionext.com/16 and join us on 1st February 2023 at #CIONEXT | Let's talk Money to find out how the Finalists of the European Digital Leader of the Year are managing their 2023 technology budgets and what measures are being taken to save money in this pivotal year. In this #LeadershipDeepDive Interview Hendrik Deckers asked Hans how VTTI, a tank storage company, which is a 24/7 and 365, relatively asset-heavy business, can work on its resilience in post-Covid and cybercrime times. Does an organisation's cybersecurity usually depend on human behaviour or are there other factors that can be excluded to increase safety? Hans also explained how VTTI is becoming a more data-driven company and how building a data lake has helped in using data assets more effectively. Is sustainability currently one of the core topics at VTTI? What alternatives to traditional fuels are going to be of significance in the nearest future? How to make sure OT and IT cooperate effectively to achieve best business results? Watch the full interview to find out! Table of contents 01:15 | Introduction 02:06 | Hans's background 02:44| About VTTI 04:07 | Main challenges for the company 06:22 | Business resilience program 11:05 | Smart devices, cyber risks and security 14:47 | Examples of raising resilience 18:59 | Results of the program 21:40 | Data lake program 26:27 | Results of the program 30:38 | Sustainability at VTTI 34:06 | Company culture 35:38 | Management style 37:19 | IT organisation 39:34 | Cloud journey 41:46 | The role of the CIO 45:09 | ERP at VTTI 47:00 | Leadership style 48:42 | Personality & MBTI profile 54:36 | Mentors 56:06 | Passions 58:54 | Personal values 01:00:30 | Best and worst things in life 01:03:27 | Most brilliant failure 1:08:54 | Advice for aspiring digital leaders

Miguel Cordeiro – Director Information Technology System at Rangel – is nominated to the #EDLOTY Award in the B2B category! Register here: https://www.cionext.com/16 and join us on 1st February 2023 at #CIONEXT | Let's talk Money to find out how the Finalists of the European Digital Leader of the Year 2023 optimise their IT spend in times of “doing more with less”. Rangel provides its customers with the whole portfolio of logistics services - international air, sea and road transportation, express shipments and customs & contracts support - to mention just a few. Logistics sector is a competitive market, where the success of a company depends not only on price but often enough on the response and service delivery speed. In this #LeadershipDeepDive Interview Hendrik Deckers asked Miguel how to proceed when a legacy system stops responding to business needs and how to use such a situation as an opportunity for the IT department to reinvent itself. They also discussed different ways of making companies more efficient using a variety of tools. Two of them - Robotic Process Automation at Rangel's RPA Center of Excellence and the Order to Cash to Pay Program - helped the organisation significantly increase competitive advantage on the market. What are the key components of Rangel's IT roadmap in the coming years? How to decide if a process should be automated using RPA? What measures can be put in place to enhance sustainability in a sector with a high carbon footprint? Watch the full interview to find out!

Jochen Göttelmann – CIO at Lufthansa Cargo - is nominated to the #EDLOTY Award in the B2B category! Register here: https://www.cionext.com/16 and join us on 1st February 2023 at #CIONEXT | Let's talk Money to find out how the Finalists of the European Digital Leader of the Year 2023 support the bottom line in times of crisis. Lufthansa, one of the top 10 airlines in the world, was close to insolvency in 2020, while playing a crucial role for the society in the pandemic: transporting medical equipment as quickly as possible. Do current events in the world significantly impact the company's financial performance and what measures are in place to save money? To what extent does IT help with optimising costs at this difficult time? In this #LeadershipDeepDive Interview Hendrik Deckers discusses with Jochen how the first large-scale cloud project at Lufthansa Cargo – migration to a new booking engine – was planned and implemented and how to manage a large agile team of 60 – 80 developers working on high-complexity projects. They also talked about the Production Planning and Steering environment (PPS), which helps predict shipment flows to up to 14 days, and at the same time is one of the strategies to deal with lack of skilled workforce. Is Lufthansa's cloud strategy bringing savings to the company or is it actually more expensive than the traditional on-prem approach? How to make sure security is not affected while escaping legacy systems? Are CIOs becoming “Chief Inspiration Officers” when it comes to innovation? Watch the full interview to find out! Table of contents: 00:56 | Introduction 01:12 | Jochen's background 04:28| About Lufthansa Cargo 05:45 | Main challenges for the company 09:07 | New booking engine 13:39 | Implementing cloud at Lufthansa Cargo 16:36 | Maintaining agility in large teams 19:33 | Security by design 23:28 | Returns & savings with the program 24:04 | Advantages and disadvantages of cloud 25:14 | Production planning and steering environment (PPS) 31:32| New technologies 33:16 | IT organisation 36:05 | The role of the CIO 39:26 | Lufthansa vs. Lufthansa Cargo 40:49 | Management style 42:15 | Leadership style 45:17 | Personality & MBTI profile 51:03 | Drivers & hobbies 52:08 | Personal values 52:56 | Personal mantra and mentors 55:40 | Most brilliant failure 58:44 | Best and worst things in life 1:00:22 | Loves & fears 1:03:30 | Advice for aspiring digital leaders

„Not many people know that, but Bekaert has had in many cases a lot of patents and the first space shuttle that actually went into space, had Bekaert material on it”, says Gunter van Craen, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at Bekaert, a global steel wire and coating organisation. In this #leadershipdeepdive interview Hendrik Deckers talks with Gunter about Bekaert's strategy on innovation, digital and sustainability. Being a company that's heavily relying on natural resources, sustainability must play an important role in Bekaert's operations. Gunter explains how data is used to support the race to net zero. Curious to know more? Gunter was our keynote speaker at the 15th edition of CIONEXT | The Reace to Net Zero where we discussed the sustainability agenda. If you missed the event, make sure you watch not only the interview, but also the recording of the event

“You're always 25 metres away from an object coloured or protected by our products” says Marco van Kempen, Director IT Center of Expertise at AkzoNobel, an organisation that supplies sustainable and innovative paints and coatings with a world class portfolio of brands - including Dulux, International,Sikkens and Interpon - to name just a few. In this #LeadershipDeepDive interview Hendrik Deckers asked Marco in detail what the company's ERP strategy looks like – what systems and platforms are used, how financial, HR and eCommerce data are managed using e.g. cFIN, ECC, Magento – and about the next steps on AkzoNobel's ERP journey. Marco explained how the company managed post-covid supply chain issues and increasing prices, as well as shared strategies in IT that help relieve the situation by using data to create real-time insights. Is the company going to reach their goal to move to just 4 ERP platforms by the end of 2023? How far is it on its cloud journey? Has outsourcing of their IT services proven to be a successful strategy? Watch the full interview to find out!

What are the main drivers for change at BT? Where is the organization in the race to net zero? How does sustainability affect security? Curious to know more? Watch the interview and join us next Wednesday, December 7 at 15:30 CET on the 15th edition of CIONEXT where Joris is our keynote speaker!  Register now

Markus Voss, Global CIO & COO at DHL Supply Chain will join us for the 15th edition of #CIONEXT | The Race to Net Zero! Register here:

The mission of CIONET.TV is to discover the DNA of the most successful Digital Leaders in the world and present their stories to our Community. Today we are proud to publish our 100th #LeadershipDeepDive Interview with a seasoned and one of a kind leader - Sam Kini - who is the Global CIO at Unilever, an organisation active in 190 countries, employing 150,000 people (with 3.4 billion consumers in the world using their products every single day!). In this episode Hendrik Deckers asks what is the CIO's role in a company of this size with an ambitious goal to reduce their “application BMI”, move 90% of technology to the cloud by the end of 2022. Sam explains Unilever's IT organisation and strategy behind creating simplicity at scale - mapping the application footprint globally, consolidating technologies and removing the complexity. They discuss the importance of sustainability and Unilever's goals in the area: being deforestation-free by 2023, innovations that support sustainability, such as refillable products and initiatives that help achieve these objectives, including the Climate and Nature Fund, set to effectively invest EUR 1 billion over the next 10 years. “Our mission is to have purposeful brands to be able to prove that having a sustainable business increases performance”, says Sam. Is the Metaverse on the top of the agenda at Unilever? Is Unilever fully agile yet? How important is diversity and inclusion for the organisation? Watch the full interview to find out! Table of contents: 01:20 | Introduction 01:57 | Sam's background 04:26 | About Unilever 05:53 | Main challenges 06:58 | Innovation: refillables 07:32 | Sustainability as business driver 10:47 | Simplicity at scale 13:00 | Application landscape and ERP strategy 15:02 | Cloud program 17:00 | IT organisation & operating model 18:57 | Agile at Unilever 20:14 | Strategic partnerships & partner consolidation program 22:27 | The most exciting technologies 26:13 | The role of the Global CIO 27:41 | Sam's management style 30:00 | Attracting talent 31:19 | Leadership style 32:52 | Personality & MBTI profile 37:52 | Personal passions 38:30 | Motivation 39:29 | Diversity and inclusion at Unilever 42:13 | Most brilliant failures 44:57 | Personal mantras 46:38 | Best and worst things in life 48:44 | Loves and fears 50:24 | Advice for aspiring digital leaders

Founded in Germany in 1866 ,TÜV SÜD is a well-known brand focusing on testing, inspection and certification for the safety of the world. It hires 26,000 employees spread across 1,000 locations. Stefan Domsch, CIO of TÜV SÜD manages a team of about 1,000 IT professionals. In this Leadership Deep Dive interview Stefan talks with Hendrik Deckers about harmonisation and simplification of the company's ERP systems and the cloud strategy that is connected with these processes. He also shares his views on data management and explains why it is important for TÜV SÜD to have control over its data. Moreover, Stefan talks about his open-door policy and how it helps him to be not only an excellent CIO but also a good business leader. “My goal is to give IT not only the supporting function but to make it an enabler of change in the company,” he says.

Vice Admiral Arnaud Coustillière has spent his entire career in the French Army, during which he embarked on several warships where he held operational command positions. As of 2017, he is General Director of Digital and Information and Communication Systems, managing an IT budget of ca. €3.5B. He has established the "Digital Platform Management Unit" (UM SNUM in French) and led the development of "Defense Connect" and "Defense Platform", which were essential for achieving the ambition of the Ministry of Armed Forces to leverage massive amounts of data and new technologies for digital transformation. In this episode of Leadership Deep Dive, Vice Admiral talks to Hendrik Deckers about how military experience shaped him as a leader, about facing cybersecurity threats of national security level, about France's ambition of operating a cuttine-edge innovation ecosystem, and about bringing agile culture into this traditional organisation.

In the 2 years as CIO of ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics) Massimo Fedeli has led a transformation program which enabled fully digitalized census of about 1.4M Italian citizens - annually instead of every 10 years. The New Digital Census has eliminated over 125,000 tons of paper and saved the ISTAT tens of millions of Euro. During his career, Massimo Fedeli has been in charge of developing the information system of the Treasury Department and the State Accounting Department at Consip, and previously Head of the Office in charge of developing the tools to support the production cycle at SOGEI. He was a senior consultant in the area of strategic planning and consultancy for Tecsiel, on whose behalf he carried out projects at many large Public Administrations and Banks. In this episode of Leadership Deep Dive, he talks with Hendrik Deckers about leading such a large scale project, the digital transformation at this traditional, yet data-driven public institution and about bridging the digital divide.

The mark of a great CIO is, ten years in the future, how many people who worked for them are now CIOs. In this Leadership Deep Dive episode Aidan Hancock, Group CIO of Network Rail talks with Hendrik Deckers about the Consolidation Program, the maturity level of digital data within the company, implementation of the Digital Twin and the new role of CIO who touches every part of the business and guides the company into the digital. Aidan also comments about one of his focus points, the security: Network Rail provides critical national infrastructure Close cooperation with the CSO Linked into the wider eco system – intelligence services, British transport police Strategy to response to security threats.

What is it that LCL does and why are they so concerned with sustainability? How can we create greater awareness for sustainability in society and in organisations? Why is sustainability so important for LCL? What is Laurens' advice for future entrepreneurs? In this Leadership Deep Dive episode Laurens van Reijen, the Founder and Managing Director of LCL, talks with Hendrik Deckers about his journey as an entrepreneur, how he founded LCL and how he became one of the driving forces behind the European Data Center Association. Listen to the interview to learn more and be inspired by Laurens van Reijen.

How to build trust with business and your employees? What's the digital level of maturity of SNCB and how far did they go with becoming agile? In this Leadership Deep Dive episode Guido Lemeire, CIO of SNCB (Belgian Train), talks with Hendrik Deckers about the internal and external strategy for the digital, challenges of the transportation system and the need to be flexible to customers needs. Guido explains how starting at level zero helped him when he joined in 2018 and what he achieved since then: SAP implementation in 2018 Built full cloud infrastructure and a data center Migration of 500 applications completed in June 2020 requirements Doing "the full transition without losing one employee We want to be trusted", says Guido and explains why communication is really the key.

"I hope my legacy is leaving some thoughts about how to really take advantage of our digital world which will be so different to the world we grew up in." Let us take you to a journey across five decades. In this special edition of Leadership Deep Dive, Roger Camrass, International Research Director CIONET talks with Hendrik Deckers, Founder and MD CIONET on how the digital world of today has been shaped and how he contributed to this exciting technological revolution. Listen to the full interview now! With degrees from Cambridge University and MIT, Roger had the opportunity to get the first-hand experience in numerous technological endeavors across telecommunications, IT consulting and outsourcing. Having worked with first start-ups on the market and initiating IT consulting, Roger has witnessed the true technological change: The roaring 70s: ARPANET, the precursor of Internet – the real game changer The 80s: explosive growth of IT The 90s: hyper-connectivity The new Millennium: the start of digital era Second decade of XXI c.: hyper-personalisation Listen to this amazing testimonial, Roger's personal journey that took him across Europe and USA. Having participated in seminal tech developments such as call centres, ERP, Cloud and 5G, Roger anticipated in nineties that hyper-connectivity would transform the industrial landscape. Today Roger stresses that the data is the new Gold and the big question to all of us is how do we protect and monetise our own intellectual property?

What is the magic behind UiPath? How was it possible to grow from a local Romanian company into a global unicorn in spite of the pandemic? What role did the culture of togetherness play in it? In this #LeadershipDeepDive interview Hendrik Deckers discusses with Andreea Baciu, Chief Culture Officer at UiPath, their transition from a dynamic, yet local start-up to a global IPO organisation with around 4000 people. „The culture itself is everybody's job”, Andreea says and explains how the culture is blending with technology. She also shares insights on the cultural aspects of Automation and the challenges as well as benefits of scaling Automation inside the organisation. Watch the full interview to find out how UiPath nurtures innovation within the Immersion Lab and why it offers its employees and unlimited PTO policy. #DigitalLeadership #UiPath #FullyAutomatedEnterprise #WaronTalent #TheGreatResignation #CIO #CXO #CTO #CCO #CIONET #innovation #technology #data #DigitalTransformation #Automation #RPA #AI Table of contents: 01:17 | Introduction and Andreea Baciu's background 02:32 | About UiPath 05:51 | Chief Culture Officer 09:03 | Culture of togetherness and belonging in a remote set up 12:35 | Company-wide hackathon and the Podium 13:54 | Facing the change 15:26 | Insights from listening to the workforce 17:17 | Unlimited PTO policy and the importance of taking private time 19:39 | UiPath culture 22:01 | Impact on local businesses in Bucharest 23:31 | Cultural aspects of Automation 25:21 | Challenges of scaling inside the company 26:42 | Main benefits of Automation 28:31 | UiPath's Immersion Lab 29:59 | Andreea's role as Chief Culture Officer 32:07 | Andreea's management style 34:43 | Attracting and retaining top talents 36:45 | Andreea's leadership style 38:41 | MBTI: the Executive 43:37 | Personal mantra 44:22 | Andreea's values 46:02 | The most brilliant failure 50:05 | Andreea's mentors 52:52 | Andreea's passions 54:40 | The best and worst moment in life 56:44 | The biggest fear 57:45 | Advice for people starting out

How is Carrefour going to realise their ambition to become a digital retail company by 2026? Is implementing an in-house-built point of sale for the entire Group a good strategy? Are fully automated stores and instant delivery service - Bringo - the future of Carrefour? In this #LeadershipDeepDive interview Hendrik Deckers discussed with Gabriela Stanica, CIO & CDO at Carrefour Romania, their journey to a cloud-based, data-driven company and implementing the product mindset. Gabriela explained what strategies have been adopted to battle the talent shortage and monetise data from one of the biggest data lakes in retail (over 8 billion transactions). She also shared how Carrefour is using algorithms to predict over 80% of customer basket choices using AI. Watch the full interview to find out how the use of RPA and AI can foster digital transformation and how Gabriela's experience at Carrefour in New York shaped her leadership style! Table of contents: 01:02 | Introduction 01:50 | Gabriela's background 06:21 | About Carrefour Romania 07:55 | About Carrefour's delivery service - Bringo 08:58 | Business challenges 12:21 | Journey towards product mindset 14:10 | IT solutions at Carrefour 15:21 | Development of group point of sale 16:57 | Cloud migration 17:39 | Data strategy 21:09 | Solutions to talent shortage 23:18 | Use of automation & bots 26:40 | IT & Digital organisation 28:40 | Gabriela's role as CIO & CDO 32:27 | Women in digital leadership 35:09 | Management style 38:28 | Personality 42:55 | MBTI profile | development areas 44:44 | Motivation 45:13 | Core values 46:01 | Personal mantra 47:02 | Gabriela's projects in New York 51:04 | Mentors 53:13 | Hobbies 54:56 | Failures & lessons learned 57:22 | Best things in life 58:53 | Worst things in life 1:00:19 | Loves and fears 1:01:30 | Advice for aspiring digital leaders