20 October 2026, Brussels, Belgium: Gaia-X announces leadership transition and the next phase of its development, with a reinforced focus on delivery, member value and market impact. The announcement comes as the digital economy accelerates around AI and the need for trusted data ecosystems has never been greater.
Jérôme Léger, currently Head of Architecture & Design Authorities at Crédit Agricole Group, will succeed Ulrich Ahle, who announced his retirement after three years as Gaia-X CEO. Fabian Biegel, bringing extensive expertise in digital transformation and artificial intelligence, will succeed Roland Fadrany as Gaia-X COO, following Roland’s announcement to pursue new professional endeavours.
Jérôme Léger’s appointment will take effect in January 2027, following a transition period starting on 1 November 2026. On the same day, Fabian Biegel’s appointment will take effect.
“It has been a privilege to lead Gaia-X for the past three years and to work with such a committed community. Gaia-X has built a solid foundation for trust in data exchange, and I am proud of what we have achieved together. I am confident that Jérôme and Fabian are the right leaders to take it into Season 2.0, and I will follow its progress with great interest.” – Ulrich Ahle, outgoing CEO, Gaia-X
“I am honoured to lead Gaia-X at this pivotal moment. Building on our strong foundations, our mandate is clear: to further expand our reach and accelerate Europe’s digital competitiveness. By continuously advancing a sovereign trust layer for AI and robust industrial data spaces, we will strengthen Europe’s position as a leading AI continent—empowering organisations to scale fearlessly through trusted data exchange and federated learning. Together with our ecosystem, we will continue driving this shared vision into a powerful market reality and secure Europe’s position in the global digital landscape” – Jérôme Léger, incoming CEO, Gaia-X
“After almost 5 exciting years with the Gaia-X Association, it is time for me to return to the commercial side of ecosystems and pursue a new promising opportunity.” – Roland Fadrany, outgoing COO, Gaia-X
“Having been involved in Gaia-X since its inception, I know the ambition behind this initiative and the importance of turning its vision into practical solutions for European industry. I am excited to take on this new role, work alongside the Gaia-X team and community, and continue to reliably deliver on our ambitions.” – Fabian Biegel, incoming COO, Gaia-X
Gaia-X thanks Ulrich Ahle and Roland Fadrany for successfully addressing the foundational challenges of Season 1.0, their valuable contributions to the organisation, and their role in bringing Gaia-X into Season 2.0, as well as their commitment to ensuring a smooth transition for the team, members and community.
Together with the Gaia-X Team, Jérôme and Fabian will lead the acceleration of industrialisation across trusted data spaces, with a strong focus on delivery and market value, Trust Framework and readiness for industrial AI.
Since its creation, Gaia-X has worked to create the foundation for trust in data exchange, and its role as a first mover in designing a Trust Framework for data spaces is widely recognised. Over the past five years, many sectoral data space initiatives have been launched, but reaching industrial scale, including effective implementation of the Trust Framework, remains a challenge. Heterogeneous blueprints also make interoperability across data spaces difficult. In response, the Board of Directors has defined the next decisive steps to accelerate Gaia-X’s next phase.
“Gaia-X proposition remains sound. Our job now is to turn the community’s work into industrial-grade technical services that members and data space users can rely on, and to make trust a native part of data exchange between organisations, humans and AI agents.”– Catherine Jestin, BoD Chairwoman, Gaia-X; Executive Vice President Digital, Airbus
Strategic priorities
Accelerating concrete technical value. In Season 2.0, Gaia-X will advance its technical roadmap to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 9, delivering industrialised services from data space connectors implementing the Trust Framework to Gaia-X Digital Clearing House (GXDCH) compliance services. This will leverage the open-source community and pave the way toward verifiable credentials for AI agents.
From industrial building blocks to services monitoring. Gaia-X will emphasise production-ready code, active deployments, interoperability tools and reusable solutions. It will coordinate and support an open-source foundation to govern the technology on behalf of the community and will collect performance indicators from GXDCH compliance services to drive continuous improvement.
Scaling adoption and establishing the trust layer for AI. A Gaia-X blueprint can scale across use cases, countries and industries. Gaia-X will join forces with existing data ecosystems to develop a roadmap for secure, compliant data exchange between agents, facilitating the training of industrial LLMs and accelerating industrial agentic AI adoption—ultimately empowering cutting-edge, trusted federated learning.
Gaia-X Summit, Vienna, 19-20 November 2026
The new Executive Team will share the detailed roadmap of Season 2.0 at the Summit, walk through the industrialisation of Gaia-X’s technical assets and answer questions directly.
Gaia-X remains committed to working openly and constructively with the wider ecosystem. Collaboration remains central to its approach: by bringing together complementary expertise, capabilities and communities, Gaia-X aims to contribute to a trusted, interoperable and sovereign digital future.