On this page you will find an overview of the Gaia-X Board of Directors for 2025-2027 in alphabetic order by company.
Gaia-X Board of Directors 2025-2027
Catherine Jestin
Chairwoman of the BoD
Airbus
Executive Vice President Digital and Information Management at Airbus since 1 July 2021 and member of the Company’s Executive Committee. Catherine has previously held the position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Airbus since March 2020. In this role, she drove state-of-the-art Information Technology systems and solutions supporting Airbus employees, customers and suppliers. Prior to this position, Catherine was Chief Information Officer at Airbus Helicopters, a role she held from July 2013 to February 2020. Before joining Airbus, Catherine held various positions, between 2007 and 2013, at Rio Tinto in Montreal, Canada, in Information Systems & Technology (IS&T). Catherine also spent 17 years at Accenture and was nominated Partner in 2002, a position she held for five years.
Helmut Leopold
Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT)
Helmut Leopold has more than 30 years of experience in the IT industry. After his engagement at Alcatel, he was as acting CTO at Telekom Austria the main driving force and responsible for the digitalization transformation of Telekom Austria into a modern
multimedia and broadband company. At AIT he has established successfully a globally leading Research and Technology organisation with the Center for Digital Safety & Security. Helmut Leopold led international efforts such as the Broadband Services Forum (BSF), San Francisco, and is leading initiatives supporting international organisations such es the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Austrian society for Electronics and
Software Based Systems (ESBS), is member of the supervisory board of the Austrian telecommunication regulator (RTR), and he is coordinator of the Gaia-X Hub Austria.
Frederic Lelong
ATOS
Executive Vice President Global Delivery Center at Atos since Oct 2024 and member of the Group Excom. Frederic has had an extensive and distinguished career in information technology, particularly recognised for his adept leadership in steering large-scale IT outsourcing initiatives as well as driving large scale complex organisational change and transformation.
He was previously CEO of Atos UK & Ireland and CEO of Atos France.
Frederic’s journey in the IT industry is marked by a series of significant achievements in various domains including IT services, consulting, systems integration and outsourcing services. His expertise encompasses the entire spectrum of large program service life cycle management. This ranges from initial engagement phases through to customer service integration, service transformation and ensuring seamless business operations.
Susanne Dehmel
Bitkom
Susanne Dehmel has been a member of Bitkom’s Executive Board & management team since October 2014, where she is currently responsible for the Legal, Security as well as the AI & Data business units. Susanne Dehmel is a lawyer and completed her law studies in Passau, Freiburg & Cardiff. She was an expert member of the Commission on AI of the German Parliament, was part of the Expert Council on Consumer Questions for the German Ministry of Justice from 2018-22 as well as part of the Advisory Board on the German Digital Strategy at the Ministry for Digital and Transport from 2022-24. An important part of her work is promoting trust and security in the digital world and the practical further development of the legal framework for the digital economy & society.
Jérôme Léger
Crédit Agricole
Jerome lead the Group Credit Agricole (CA) Enterprise Architecture and Design Authorities, overseeing a community of over 500 people across 15+ European countries (30 worldwide). With more than 25 years in Media, Telco, and Banking sectors, I specialise in Technology value identification, IT
engineering at scale, Ecosystems & Business value chains. I have been recognized, early 2000, by the french National Agency for Research & Innovation Promotion as a technology creator with high potential of growth. Since 2010, I have been director of the CA Group program, to respond to the European PSD2 Directive, that made the CA the first systemic french bank to became fully DSP2 compliant. I also defined the Group Data governance framework to both cope with regulatory requirements and business value creation. And I steer the CA Group community for Cloud and Interoperability to prepare for Next Gen hybrids IT Architectures.
Laurent Lafaye
Dawex
Laurent Lafaye is a French entrepreneur with strong expertise in digital technologies & data-driven business models, and a recognized track record in data exchange. Before co-founding Dawex in 2015, he spent over eight years in internet and technology consulting, advising clients in sectors like manufacturing, media, and insurance. In 2009, he had already teamed up with Fabrice Tocco to launch a company that became the global leader in automotive data. At Dawex, Laurent promotes a vision of a regulated and
accessible data economy, enabling organizations to create secure and compliant data ecosystems thanks to data exchange. He serves on the Gaia-X Board and supports global initiatives on data exchange standardization.
Kai Meinke
deltaDAO
Co-Founder and Member of the Board of deltaDAO AG. Lead of the Gaia-X Open-Source Software Community, Gaia-X Evangelist, Gaia-X Functional and Technical Advisor. Background as a graduated economist, specialized in international economics, and an IT-specialist in system integration, he has contributed to numerous Gaia-X Lighthouse projects, such as Pontus-X, EuProGigant, COOPERANTS, Gaia-X4FutureMobility, Flex4Res, and ACCURATE, among others. Since 2021, he has led deltaDAO AG, following his previous roles as a Product Owner at the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Culture of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany (2020–2021) and dataport AöR (2019–2020). Prior to that, he was a Project Manager at ZBW-Leibniz Information Center for Economics (2017–2018) and co-founded YES! – Young Economic Summit, serving as Project Manager from 2015 to 2018. He also held positions as a Project Manager and IT Analyst at Freenet AG (2014–2016) and as a Project Manager at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) from 2009 to 2014.
Alberto Di Felice
Digitaleurope
Alberto Di Felice is Policy and Legal Counsel at DIGITALEUROPE, the leading trade association representing digitally transforming industries in Europe. With comprehensive expertise in digital regulation, he oversees the association’s policy deliverables and thought leadership. He also ensures compliance as DIGITALEUROPE’s data protection and antitrust officer. Alberto previously led DIGITALEUROPE’s work in privacy, AI, data policy, cybersecurity, consumer policy and telecoms regulation. He also spent seven years at Qualcomm, addressing key issues in EU technology policy. A
Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/E), Alberto holds advanced degrees in law, European studies and diplomacy.
Mauro Brambilla
Dynamo
Mauro brings a proven track record of business transformation, with expertise in operational excellence, strategic planning, and cross-functional leadership, Mauro excels at optimizing business processes and building high-performing teams. He holds an Executive Master in Organizational Leadership from CFMT Milan, a Master’s degree in Law from Università Statale Di Milano, and a degree in Computer and Information Sciences.
Gaël Blondelle
Eclipse Foundation AISBL
Gaël began his open source career in 2004 as a co-founder of a European Open Source startup, before joining the Eclipse Foundation in 2013. He has been leading several strategic initiatives, starting with playing a key role in relocating the Eclipse Foundation to Europe in 2020, including managing a strategic research project aimed at building an open source ecosystem with major industrial players, and co-founding the OSPO Alliance.
The OSPO Alliance was established by several European non-profit organizations with the goal of helping all types of companies (not just large tech firms ) develop their Open Source capabilities in order to benefit more from Open Source, and to become more influential in the different Open Source ecosystems. In January 2024, Gaël was appointed to the board of the Open Source Initiative, the steward of the Open Source Definition.
Martine Gouriet
EDF
Martine Gouriet is director of digital uses within EDF Group, a role which she assume in 2019. Most recently, she was Director of IT and Telecom shared services at the company. Previously , she was leading EDf subsidiary Edelia which is specialized within data, energy efficiency and smart grids. She has worked during 17 years within Orange and she has launched in France the IP and VOD TV. Martine Gouriet is also board director of Gaia X, leading the work related to labels and energy in the association. She is gratuated from ” Ecole Polytechnique ” and ” Telecom Paris Tech“.
Chandra Challagonda
FIWARE
I am a technology executive, digital ecosystem strategist, and entrepreneur with over 26 years of global leadership in open-source governance, data sovereignty, and Al-enabled infrastructure. As the current CEO of FIWARE Foundation, I lead a global community driving open digital standards, open source, open standards, non vendor locking and interoperable solutions across more than 600 smart solutions and 500+ SMEs, supporting smart, sustainable, and secure digital transformation.
I have been deeply involved in European initiatives such as OpenDEI, DS4SSCC, DSSC, and contributions to CEN/CENELEC JTC 21 (Trusted Data Transactions Part 1 & 2) highlight my commitment to building sovereign, secure, and standards-based data ecosystems. These efforts are tightly coupled with the objectives of the EU Data Act, EU AI Act and Data Governance Act.
I am currently as a senior technical advisor for 2050 Materials and Verifiable. Trade Foundaiton in Switzerland. I have been also Board Member of FIWARE Foundation and some startups in the past.
Boris Otto
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft
Boris Otto is Professor for Industrial Information Management at TU Dortmund University and Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering (Fraunhofer ISST). Furthermore, he is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Fraunhofer ICT Group
(the largest ICT research organization in Europe) and Member of the Presidential Council of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. As an industrial engineer by education, Boris Otto is a senior Information Systems researcher with a focus on data ecosystems, data spaces, data governance, and enterprise data management. He is member of the Boards of Directors of the International Data Spaces e. V., of the Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL, and of the Catena-X Automotive Network e.V. Moreover, Boris Otto serves as the co-ordinator of the EU Data Spaces Support Centre.
Daniel Saez Domingo
ITI – INSTITUTO TECNOLÓGICO DE INFORMÁTICA
Daniel is member of the Board of Directors in BDVA and Gaia-X, and member of the Steering Committee of NESSI, at European Level. He is also the president of the Spanish Gaia-X Association, member of the management board of Planetic since 2007, currently vicepresident and
coordinating the Spanish interplatforms group of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. Daniel is the president of the delegate commission of AI4ES, the Spanish excellence network in Data based technology enablers and is the coordinator of the ITI Data Innovation Space, the Data Innovation
Hub to foster data driven and artificial intelligence-based innovation, which has coordinating EuHubs4Data, the European Federation of Big Data Innovation Hubs.
Bert Verdonck
Luxembourg National Data Service
Bert Verdonck leads the Luxembourg National Data Service, a new governmental organisation that solves the hard problems of governance between multiple institutions, the technical challenges of data platforms at scale, and the compliance with ELSI requirements in cross-border settings. In his prior role at Philips, he explored the various health data space initiatives, to improve data sharing for primary care delivery as well as for secondary use and research. During 26 years at Philips, he delivered results in the cloud/edge/data domain, via modern software stacks, healthcare informatics solutions within the hospital and in the home, solving complex data challenges, and leading people in the transformation towards data spaces. He has a PhD in medical image processing from ENST Paris (France) and an engineering degree from KULeuven (Belgium).
Emmanuel Cacheux
Orange
Since May 2025, Emmanuel Cacheux is Chief Trust Officer (in charge of the strategy and the marketing of Connectivity, Cloud, Data, Cybersecurity trusted solutions) at Orange Business. He has more than 30 years of experience, successfully relying on solid skills in governance, project management and global organization management.
During the last 6 years, he has been actively contributing to the security management of Orange Group as a Governance Security VP.
Beyond his activities at Orange, Emmanuel Cacheux is a member of ENISA, including Cybersecurity Awareness Raising and Education program.
Dominique Michiels
OVHcloud
Dominique Michels is Chief Service Delivery Officer at OVHcloud and a member of the Executive Committee.
He joined OVHcloud in 2017 to manage the operation of all services delivered to customers with a strong focus on their satisfaction.
An IT enthusiast for 40 years, he has accumulated considerable experience in IT production, architecture, and software development, performing diverse roles at Worldline (Atos subsidiary), such as the management of large cost centres & profit centres, including running large, complex international projects.
In a multicultural landscape, he was also a key contributor to the various M&A and transformation programs.
Antonietta Mastroianni
Proximus
Member of the Proximus Leadership Squad since April 2021, where she acts as Chief Digital & IT Officer. Before Proximus, she was Group CIO and CDIO at the Danish TDC, Head of IT and Business Partner at Swiss Sunrise, and she had several roles in Swisscom and H3G Italy. She is an influential IT leader with 20 years of international Telecom experience leveraging technology to drive organizational growth, performance and profitability. She has worked in different European countries (Italy, Switzerland, Denmark and Belgium) and is a council member of Etis. Currently, she holds the VC Finance seat in the Board of Directors of Gaia-X, chairwoman in the Board of Directors of Proximus Ada and a Board Observer of Lumine Group. She studied Computer and Automation Engineering at University of Siena and is a member of the Order of Engineers of the province of Caserta. In 2022, Antonietta was awarded the Telco Women of the Year by NetworkX, 5G World CxO of the year 2021 by 5G World and named Telco CxO of the Year in 2021.
Mark Kühner
SAP
Mark Kuehner has been a key force in Europe’s enterprise cloud transformation for over two decades. At SAP since 2001, he has played a foundational role in building SAP Cloud and Enterprise Cloud Services. After supporting the cloud strategy of Amadeus’ CTO Office in 2018, he returned to SAP to lead sovereign cloud and AI initiatives across industries.
Currently VP for SAP Industries and Experience, Mark drives innovation at the intersection of AI, edge, and sovereign infrastructure. As a Board Member of Gaia-X, he contributes to shaping European data spaces, and represents SAP at the Industry Alliance for Data, Edge and Cloud as well as BITKOM’s Gaia-X & Cloud Policy group.
Mark initiated and is a leading voice behind the “Open Reference Architecture” for Europe’s next-gen cloud stack. As a returning Gaia-X board candidate, he brings continuity, deep architectural expertise, and a strong commitment to open, federated and sovereign digital infrastructure.
Thomas Hahn
Siemens
Thomas Hahn is since 2011 Chief Expert Software at Siemens AG. After studying computer science at Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen he joined the company in 1986. Thomas Hahn had several responsibilities in the area of manufacturing such as Head of Software Development for Industrial Automation Systems. Beyond his activities at Siemens, Thomas Hahn is a member or board member of various bodies, including Openlab CERN and steering committee Plattform Industrie 4.0. He is vice-president OPC Foundation, Vice-Chairperson GAIA-X AISBL, Chairman of Labs Network Industrie 4.0, Board Member of the Bavarian “KI-Rat” and President Big Data Value Association.
Benoit Spolidor
Sopra Steria
Benoit has over 25 years of experience in the IT industry, having worked with both SMEs and major corporations. He began his career in the United States as an IT Consultant and Software Architect for a Systems Integrator, then worked in France as Technical Director for a Management Consulting Firm & Software Vendor. In 2017, Benoit joined Sopra Steria, initially serving as Head of Artificial Intelligence for Aeroline, the group’s Aerospace & Defence division (5,500 employees across 10 countries). For the past two years, he has taken on the role of CTO and EXCOM member of Aeroline, overseeing all innovation initiatives, including Data, Al, Automation, AR/VR, Quantum Computing, and Cloud technologies. Benoit is also an active participant of the GIFAS Digital Commission, where he chairs the Systems Integrator Workgroup, helping drive the digital transformation of the Aerospace and Defence industry.
Benoit graduated from Ecole Centrale Paris and Stanford University in Applied Mathematics.
Joseba Laka
Tecnalia
Joseba Laka is the Digital Director at TECNALIA, with more than 30 years’ experience in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector—ten of them in private-sector telecommunications and IT roles. A co-author of Spain’s 2019 National R&D&I Strategy on Artificial Intelligence for the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, he is a recognised leader in national AI and data ecosystems. Laka is Vice-President of the AI & Big Data Commission at AMETIC, Spain’s principal ICT industry association, and a founding member of the Basque Artificial Intelligence Center (BAIC), where he serves on both the Data Strategy and AI Application Promotion teams. Since 2022 he has also steered development of the AI- and data-driven Digital Health strategy for the Basque Government’s RIS3 working group. In addition to these duties, he advises institutions such as the Elcano Royal Institute (Cyber-policy Working Group) on technology strategy and positioning, and in he past has held governance roles across multiple technology platforms, including the GAIA Cluster (Basque Country), PROMETEO for Intelligent Systems (Spain) and the ARTEMIS Joint Undertaking (Europe).
Antonio Salvado
TICE
Former director in areas of software for the research and development centre in a Portuguese telecommunications company, joined TICE.PT at the end of 2022, working in the strategic stream for the development of the new data economy. Developed a specific interest in the area of data spaces, following several initiates towards their definition and
de-facto standardization. Nationally involved in the dissemination of information about data spaces, and in the broader cooperation, with some of the more relevant European initiatives in the area.
Berry Vetjens
TNO
Berry Vetjens is Director Digital Innovations at TNO ICT, Strategy and Policy (ISP). He has over 25 years’ experience in concept development and innovation management in various roles. His focus has been on developing large scale cooperative ICT innovation activities at the crossroads of business and societal challenges.
Berry has been responsible for business development and portfolio management of TNO ICT’s innovation activities for the past 8 years, resulting in the creation of a 70+ people datasharing innovation cluster and pushing topics like interoperability, privacy and sovereignty to the top of the agenda. Furthermore he has been responsible for the strategic course on embedding TNO portfolio choices in Europe, resulting in the creation of the Dutch Gaia-X Hub and TNO’s participation in several EU PPPs (SNS, ADRA, BDVA).Berry has been a Gaia-X BoD member since the end of 2022 amd he is also an IDSA Board Member. Berry is currently involved in a large number of Dutch public private innovation eco-systems, among which the 6G program FNS, Delft Internet of Things Lab, Partnership for Cybersecurity Innovation, dcypher, Quantum Application Lab and the Leibniz Institute.
Hubert Tardieu
Independent Board Member
After 27 years in Sema then SchlumbergerSema then Atos in various positions on Executive Committee including EVP for Global Telecom, Global Finance, Global Consulting& Systems Integration, Hubert Tardieu has been the advisor of Atos CEO helping him to form the vision of what will be our world in 5 years ahead. To help him in this task he formed the Atos Scientific Community in June 2009 which he chaired until October 2020. He is now consultant with his own company. Hubert Tardieu is the author of several books on Information System Design Methodology Merise and in March 2020: “Deliberately Digital: Rewriting Enterprise DNA for enduring success” Tardieu and all. Springer ed Hubert Tardieu has been successively, in 2020 the Interim CEO then in 2021 the Chairman of the Board of the Gaia-X AISBL until June 7. He is currently Independent Board Member in charge of relationships with governments.
Mario Campolargo
Independent Board Member
Government of Portugal:
- Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Administrative Modernisation of Portugal – March 2022 – April 2024 (2 years 2 months)
European Commission
- Director General DG Informatics DIGIT – March 2021 – March 2022 (1 year 1 month)
- Deputy Director General – DIGIT – September 2016 – March 2021 (4 years 7 months)