European CIO Xchange
The CIO's New Mandate – Empowering People, Driving Value, Leading with Resilience
Today’s CIO plays a central role in business strategy and enterprise leadership. No longer focused solely on IT operations, CIOs are driving digital transformation, aligning technology investments with business goals, and building resilient, adaptive organizations in the face of constant disruption. As AI and automation move from experimentation to enterprise adoption, CIOs face a dual challenge: unlocking new business value while ensuring strong governance, security, and risk management. With Agentic AI rapidly reshaping operating models, CIOs must balance innovation with transparency, ethical oversight, and operational control. This new mandate requires rethinking talent, collaboration, and technology governance — enabling CIOs to lead responsible AI adoption, deliver measurable outcomes, and strengthen organizational trust and resilience.
Overview
Technology leadership is central to enabling innovation, governance, and growth as AI accelerates digital transformation. Today’s CIO must integrate AI and emerging technologies responsibly, harness data for actionable insights, and support data-driven and agentic AI initiatives across the enterprise—while balancing strategy, risk, communication, and people as part of the C-suite.
Join fellow CIOs, technology leaders, partners, and IDC analysts to exchange best practices, build meaningful connections, and collaborate on leading successful transformation in the age of AI agents.
Thomas Meyer
Thomas Meyer joined IDC in January 1999 and is currently responsible for managing IDC’s IT Research in Europe. This includes coverage of software, services and hardware markets focused on topics such as datacenter transformation, cloud computing, virtualization, business continuity, sustainability and print services. Additionally Meyer also manages IDC Europe’s cross-domain Practices which provide insight and advisory on 3rd Platform industry transformation such Internet of Things, Cloud, Mobility, Big Data and Customer Experience IT to ICT vendors and end users.
Meyer frequently speaks at IDC, industry, customer and CIO events such as CeBIT, IDC’s EMEA CIO Summit Series, IDC’s Virtualization and Cloud Conferences and the Mobile Commerce Conference. He often contributes to articles in publications across Europe, including the Wall Street Journal, Die Zeit, Focus, Le Monde Informatique, and IT Week, and has also appeared on the BBC World Business Report and Breakfast Business Update.
Before joining IDC, Thomas Meyer worked as an IT media analyst. He holds degrees from the University of London in economics and German and an MA with a focus on European management concepts.
Event Sessions
Day 1 8:45 am
The CIO’s New Mandate: Empowering People, Driving Value, Leading with Resilience
Jennifer Thomson
Jen Thomson has more than 20 years’ experience advising IT Vendors, senior IT, and business execs on their digital business optimization and transformation strategies. She leads European Research for Accelerated App Delivery, Cloud, and Services. Her core goal is to drive synergies and growth across these research areas, with a central focus on thought leadership.
She specializes in providing insights on the investment strategies and decisions of European enterprises as they transition to modern application architectures. Her research explores app dev and delivery capabilities required to operate in a digital economy, and how this impacts enterprise organizational structures, culture, processes, tools, and skill sets. She leads the Future of Digital Innovation research for IDC Europe, exploring software innovation strategies and what this means in terms of end-user strategies, investment priorities, software sourcing, and KPIs. Thomson’s core research also explores enterprise maturity and strategies towards enterprise scale and empowered DevOps.
She is responsible for the execution of a broad range of consulting and advisory projects. As IDC’s European expert on application development and delivery strategies, Thomson is an experienced public speaker and regularly presents at conferences and IDC partner and end-user events.
She started her career at Compaq Computer EMEA as a senior research analyst. She has a bachelor’s degree in international business with German from Sheffield Hallam University (United Kingdom) and Pforzheim Fachhochschule (Germany).
Carla Arend
Carla Arend is a senior program director with the European software and infrastructure research team, and heads up IDC’s European cloud research. Arend provides industry clients with key insight into market dynamics, vendor activities, and end-user adoption trends in the European cloud market. As part of her research, she covers topics such as how European organizations are adopting cloud, how cloud drivers and inhibitors are evolving, cloud management, cloud security, data management in the cloud, IoT and cloud, AI and cloud, Devops and cloud, as well as GDPR impact on cloud and cloud code of conduct.
In addition to syndicated research, Arend has worked on many custom consulting projects identifying opportunities in the European cloud market and has authored white papers on subjects such as cloud management, cloud security, data management in the cloud.
Arend is regularly asked to speak at industry events, strategy workshops, sales kick-offs and training, partner events, and end-user events.
Arend holds a BA in business administration from University of Mannheim and an MSc in business administration and management of technology from Copenhagen Business School, in addition to course work at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok.
Andrea Siviero
Andrea Siviero leads IDC’s European Digital Business and Future of Work Research group. The group provides market research insights to foster a purposeful and fair adoption of technologies supporting digital societies, businesses and workforce and empower tech providers in strategic decision making, planning and go-to-market activities. Siviero also co-leads the IDC Worldwide MacroTech Research program, focused on the intertwined connection between the Economical and Digital worlds – analyzing the impact key MacroEconomic factors have on the digital landscape and viceversa, how technologies are impacting economies around the world.
Siviero advises IT players on building a forward-looking digital business and workforce strategy, while providing an in-depth view on future of work technology adoption, key digital use cases, macroeconomic digital impact, and digital regulations and emerging technology, via qualitative subscriptions and custom consulting projects. He has extensive experience with large strategy and go-to-market projects with IT providers. He is a member of IDC’s global Tech Storytellers taskforce and he is passionate about public speaking and customer engagement opportunities.
He joined IDC’s European team in 2014 and has become a recognized independent analyst across Europe and beyond in the vertical markets and digital business space. He is based in Italy and he holds a joint PhD in mathematics between the Université Bordeaux I (France) and the Universiteit Leiden (the Netherlands). During his PhD, he covered scientific research, academic teaching, and vocational training. He is a native Italian speaker and he is fluent in English and French.
Ewa Zborowska
Ewa Zborowska, an experienced technology professional with over two decades of expertise in the European IT services and cloud market. Since 2003, she has been a member of the IDC team, based in Warsaw, focusing on IT services research. In 2018, she joined the European team with a specific emphasis on cloud and AI.
Ms. Zborowska’s interests encompass a broad spectrum, from exploring new technology delivery models to delving into the relationship between business and IT, and understanding the societal and individual impacts of technology. She has authored numerous market publications and reports and advises on IDC projects throughout Europe. She also participates in IDC’s and third-party conferences as a keynote speaker, panelist, and moderator.
Prior to her role at IDC, Ms. Zborowska worked at Statistics Poland (formerly the Central Statistical Office) and worked at an IT company. She holds a degree in Management from the University of Łódź in Poland and has completed postgraduate studies in forecasting and foresight at Collegium Civitas University in Warsaw.
Marc Dowd
Marc Dowd is a Partner Advisor for IDC serving CIO’s of multi-billion-euro enterprises and government entities based in Europe and the middle east. He uses his understanding of business challenges coupled with technical expertise to assist leaders’ question and refine their strategy, governance and approach to innovation and business value creation.
For the last 15 years Marc has been focused on technological change and its direct impact on the business world. He has helped over a hundred C-level clients identify new opportunities and develop successful competitive strategies based on the creative application of leading-edge technologies.
Backed by over 1300 IDC analysts around the world Marc is an expert in identifying where new and emerging technology and methods can be implemented to solve business problems in real client situations. IDC as the #1 influencer of Digital Transformation enables Marc to leverage the best research for C-level clients.
Louise McKeever
Louise McKeever has responsibility at Deputy Secretary General level for the Overall management of Office of the Government Chief Information Officer.
The Government Chief Information Officer acts as the strategic advisor to Government on the digital government agenda and plays a leadership role in digital service delivery and innovation initiatives working in collaboration with and providing advice to Departments and agencies across the Civil and Public Service.
In addition to leading on the development and implementation of a number of key strategies such as the new national digital and AI and data strategy and the Public Service digital and ICT strategy, and national and EU legislation, the Government CIO also provides input, support and advice in relation to the digital agenda to Ministers as well as other areas of this Department, other Departments and Public Service Bodies.
Event Sessions
Day 2 9:15 am
Empowering People, Driving Value: Leading Complex Transformation at Scale
Jeroen Scheer
Jeroen Scheer is Leader Digital Innovation and IT Manager Power Technologies (a.i.) at Shell since 2019. He leads the Digital Pathfinders Team. Jeroen has been active in the energy industry for more than 22 years and is considered as one of the core digital leaders and architects managing the transition of the energy sector and the grid in a transition that brings a very complex ecosystem from a rather mechanical entity in the age of digital, while in the mean time embracing and facilitating the full scope of the energy transition. He has been leading digital (innovation) teams at (a.o.) Vattenfall, Alliander and Nuon. Besides, he presides several international standardization bodies, and is lecturer at several universities.
Jeroen shows his passion, creativity and long-year experience to accelerate the energy transition by linking digitization, technology, market dynamics and the energy system of the future in such a way that everyone can use energy in a dynamic mix in a reliable, cost-effective and sustainable manner. Jeroen is a well-sought after keynote speaker on many conferences throughout the world. Besides, he presides several international standardization bodies, and is lecturer at several universities, and was awadred with the Make A Difference (MAD) award in 2021
Event Sessions
Day 2 12:05 pm
The New CIO Playbook: Journey, Execution, and Bold Choices
Luise Bang
Luise Bang is an international transformation executive with more than 20 years of experience leading digital, organizational, and commercial transformation programs across complex global organizations. She has held senior leadership and board roles at companies including Vodafone Germany, Airbus Defence & Space, Vestas, Bombardier, and Danfoss, where she has driven large-scale transformation initiatives spanning AI, cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, and operational excellence.
Event Sessions
Day 1 9:30 am
Strategic Shifts: Navigating Change and Leading Transformation
Ibrahima Ndiaye
Event Sessions
Day 1 10:30 am
The Bonus Is in the Blueprint: Rethinking Architecture for the AI-Driven Enterprise
Murat Gölcü
Murat Gölcü graduated from Boğaziçi University, Department of Computer Engineering in 2001. In 2003, he joined Eczacıbaşı Group and worked in various IT specialties and management positions. He is currently working as a manager responsible for Data Center, Network, Security, Cloud, SAP Basis, Big Data and Technology Support Services at Eczacıbaşı Bilişim. In line with these areas, he manages a large team serving both Eczacıbaşı Group organizations and other customers of EB.
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Agenda
European CIO Xchange
Day 0
Group Innovation Challenge
Networking Dinner
Day 1
Exercise and Breakfast
IDC Welcome
The CIO’s New Mandate: Empowering People, Driving Value, Leading with Resilience
Thomas Meyer | IDC
SVP, IDC WW Research
Thomas Meyer
Thomas Meyer joined IDC in January 1999 and is currently responsible for managing IDC’s IT Research in Europe. This includes coverage of software, services and hardware markets focused on topics such as datacenter transformation, cloud computing, virtualization, business continuity, sustainability and print services. Additionally Meyer also manages IDC Europe’s cross-domain Practices which provide insight and advisory on 3rd Platform industry transformation such Internet of Things, Cloud, Mobility, Big Data and Customer Experience IT to ICT vendors and end users.
Meyer frequently speaks at IDC, industry, customer and CIO events such as CeBIT, IDC’s EMEA CIO Summit Series, IDC’s Virtualization and Cloud Conferences and the Mobile Commerce Conference. He often contributes to articles in publications across Europe, including the Wall Street Journal, Die Zeit, Focus, Le Monde Informatique, and IT Week, and has also appeared on the BBC World Business Report and Breakfast Business Update.
Before joining IDC, Thomas Meyer worked as an IT media analyst. He holds degrees from the University of London in economics and German and an MA with a focus on European management concepts.
Event Sessions
Day 1 08:45
The CIO’s New Mandate: Empowering People, Driving Value, Leading with Resilience
Building the Resilient Enterprise: Vision for CIO-Led Transformation
Strategic Shifts: Navigating Change and Leading Transformation
Luise Bang
Former Digital Executive, Bombardier, Airbus & Vodafone
Connecting the Dots: How Secure Networks Empower People and Enable Growth
Coffee, Networking, 1:1 Meetings
The Bonus Is in the Blueprint: Rethinking Architecture for the AI-Driven Enterprise
Ibrahima Ndiaye
CTO, RATP Group
Intelligence at Scale: Partnering for Smarter, More Resilient Operations
The Human Side of Digital: Putting People at the Heart of CIO Strategy
Group Innovation Challenge
Networking Lunch
Roundtable Discussions
Coffee, Networking, 1:1 Meetings
Workshop 1
Coffee, Networking, 1:1 Meetings
Identity at the Core: Governing Access in the Age of AI and Hybrid Work
Resilient by Design: Building the Connected Foundation for the New CIO Mandate
Group Innovation Challenge Presentations
Welcome Drinks and Gala Dinner
Day 2
Exercise and Breakfast
Setting the Stage: Day 1 Highlights & Day 2 Welcome
From Resilience to Results: Turning Strategy into Enterprise Impact
Accelerating Value: A Partner Perspective on the CIO’s Transformation Journey
Empowering People, Driving Value: Leading Complex Transformation at Scale
Louise McKeever
Government CIO, Ireland
Coffee, Networking, 1:1 Meetings
Workshop 2
Change break
Workshop 3
Change break
Leading with Purpose: A Partner’s View on Value-Driven CIO Leadership
The New CIO Playbook: Journey, Execution, and Bold Choices
Jeroen Scheer
CIO, ANWB
Co-Creating the Future of Enterprise Technology
IDC Key Takeaways and Closing
Networking Lunch and Departure
Venue
Knowledge Hub
EMEA Enterprise Networking: Strategies for 2025 and Beyond
Despite ongoing geopolitical tensions, inflationary pressures, and energy cost volatility, the outlook for networking investments in EMEA is positive. ok for networking investments in EMEA is positive.
Key Takeaways: IDC European CIO Xchange 2025
The enterprise technology landscape is undergoing a pivotal transformation, moving from the chaotic “GenAI Scramble” of 2024, characterized by widespread proof-of-concept (POC) projects, to a more deliberate “AI Pivot” focused on achieving scale and measurable business value in 2025. Discussion at the CIO Xchange reveals a consensus that success in this new era hinges on a disciplined fusion of strategy, foundational readiness, and robust governance.
The Agentic Business Future: Driving Resilience, Sovereignty, & Innovation
In this year’s session — The Agentic Business Future — we’ll explore how organizations can harness AI, automation, and sovereignty to drive resilience, innovation, and growth in an increasingly complex environment. But success in this future depends on more than technology: it requires foundational readiness, robust governance, and a human-centered approach.
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