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Gaia-X Summit 2026

Speakers

Summit 2026 Speakers – Following the Agenda Sequence

Please take into account that this page will be updated regularly. Stay tuned for the latest updates!

Cornelia Ertl

Summit Moderator

Cornelia Ertl has been self-employed in the field of communication and public speaking since 2012 and is now one of the top event moderators in Austria. The Viennese native focuses on German and English-language business events in the areas of business, science, research, new technologies, innovation and sustainability, but her repertoire also includes major events in the Austrian art and culture landscape.
In addition, Cornelia Ertl is the founder of Moderatoren Connection, a platform for moderation services through which she has supported and managed colleagues – both professionals and newcomers – for more than ten years. Clients and event organizers continue to benefit from her expertise and extensive network.

Catherine Jestin

BoD Chairwoman, Gaia-X; Executive Vice President Digital and Information Management, 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.

Ulrich Ahle

Gaia-X, CEO

Ulrich is a reputed executive in the IT sector, formerly Vice President and leader of the Manufacturing and Industrie 4.0 System Integration business at Atos in Germany. He is also founder and member of the Board of the International Data Spaces Association in Germany and served 16 years on the Board of the prostep IVIP organisation until April 2018. After an apprenticeship as toolmaker at Hella KG, he studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Paderborn. In his career, Ahle held several positions, including development engineer, Director of PLM services, sales director, and Vice President. He has been part of Nixdorf Computer AG, Siemens and Atos. From January 2017 to November 2023, Ulrich Ahle was Chief Executive Officer of the FIWARE Foundation, headquartered in Berlin, Germany.

Helmut Leopold

Head of Center for Digital Safety & Security, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology

Helmut Leopold has more than 30 years of experience in the IT industry. After acting CTO at Telekom Austria, he has established AIT (Austrian Institute of Technology) a globally leading RTO. He also led international efforts such as the Broadband Services Forum in San Francisco, and supports international organisations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Austrian society for Electronics and Software Based Systems, and is member of the supervisory board of the Austrian telecommunication regulator.

 

Peter Hanke

Austrian Minister for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure

Federal Minister Peter Hanke was born in Vienna in 1964. He worked at Wien Holding starting in 1993, and became an authorized signatory in 2001. In 2002, Hanke was appointed as one of two managing directors of Wien Holding. He was responsible for the business areas of “Finance”, “Culture and Event Management”, and “Logistics & Mobility”.From May 2018, he served as Executive City Councilor and State Councilor. Since the start of the Vienna Progress Coalition in November 2020, he has been responsible for Finance, Business, Labor, International Affairs, and the Wiener Stadtwerke (Vienna Public Utilities).Since March 2025, he has been the Federal Minister for Innovation, Mobility, and Infrastructure.Hanke is also active in the humanitarian field. For instance, he serves on the extended state board of the Kinderfreunde Wien and as a board member of the “Wirtschaft und Integration” (Business and Integration) association.In 2015, he was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria.

Alexander Pröll

Austrian State Secretary for Digitalisation in the Federal Chancellery

He has been State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery since March 2025. Previously, he was Secretary General of the People’s Party and Federal Managing Director from 2021 to 2025. He holds an LL.M. in Business Law from 2017 and an LL.B. from 2015, both from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Bert Verdonck

CEO, LNDS

Bert Verdonck is the CEO of LNDS, a governmental organisation created to solve the hard problems in public sector data sharing. He has a background at Philips, where he worked on health data sharing and data & AI strategy. He has expertise in business, marketing, sales, product management, clinical informatics, cloud, data spaces, data and AI, population health, and medical image processing. He explores the adoption of the Gaia-X framework, scouting for European initiatives with a potential to scale.

Sukumar Munshi

Senior Advisor Business & Strategy, MicelioData

Innovating leader with experience across multiple business sectors such as international business, digitalization, software and healthcare.

Dominique Pon

DG La Poste Santé & Autonomie, La Poste Groupe

Dominique Pon has been the Director General of La Poste Santé & Autonomie since May 2, 2023, and is also the Deputy CEO of Docaposte. He oversees the development of digital trust services, particularly in the healthcare sector.
At 54 years old, Dominique Pon holds a degree in Telecommunications Engineering from Télécom SudParis (computer science track). He spent the first part of his career in the industrial sector (1992 to 2001), starting as an engineer at TEAM (embedded systems for aeronautics). In 1994, he joined Schlumberger as Technical Director, where he developed X-ray baggage screening algorithms for airport security. In 1998, he moved to Vinci Energies as Managing Director, developing computerized management solutions for telecom, electricity, and gas infrastructures.
In 2001, he joined the Pasteur Clinic in Toulouse as CIO, then became Technical Director, before taking over as Chief Executive Officer in 2011. Under his leadership, the clinic became a hub for innovation in the healthcare sector. He notably initiated the creation of an incubator (Hi-Lab) and several startups, including CP-SYS, MH-COMM, Medinbox, and Yooli.
He also created DOPASYS, one of the leading electronic patient record software solutions for private clinics, as well as Clinavenir (2012), and served as President of SantéCité (2016–2018), cooperative alliances of independent French clinics.
From 2019 to 2022, he served as the “Ministerial Strategic Lead for Digital Health.”
Dominique Pon is a staunch advocate for healthcare innovation, particularly regarding patient-practitioner relationships, and new human-centric management styles based on trust.
On a personal note, he is the founder and manager of the EternesiA association, which campaigns to include the digital memory of all human beings in the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

Michael​​​​ Mossal

Senior Digital Transformation Director Luxembourg, NTT Luxembourg

Michael is a Senior Digital Transformation Director and a local Executive Committee Member with a strong focus on innovation. In 2019, he was appointed to represent the region in the CTO Office of NTT Ltd. This role became a key success factor for NTT Luxembourg, to evolve from an already very successful country in Europe, into an innovation lab for the region fostering innovative leading European projects in the areas of Healthcare, Sports, Automotive, Aeronautics and Space. Michael is one of the key figures driving the Dataspace4Health project.

Alberto Borrego Díez

Head of Healthcare, Partner at NTT DATA

Christoph Strnadl

Chief Technology Officer, Gaia-X

Educated as a research scientist in Theoretical Physics, Dr Strnadl has over 30 years of consulting and management experience in IT and how to leverage it for businesses. After 10 years as a strategy consultant and business manager at Atos, he joined Software AG in 2005, where he held various technical leadership positions in Austria, central and eastern Europe, and finally, at the global level as Deputy CTO. His accountabilities centred around aligning technology solutions and products with business requirements and strategies with a pronounced focus on innovation and evangelisation. In this capacity, he has been responsible for Software AG’s ecosystem engagements, such as Gaia-X or dataspaces, since 2019. Before joining the Gaia-X AISBL as CTO, he led the efforts of the IOTA Foundation, a Berlin blockchain/DLT association, to define and implement a technology adoption department in 2024. He is a recognised public speaker with over 300 appearances, a university lecturer for BPM technologies, and a co-author of/contributor to six books.

Roland Fadrany

Chief Operating Officer, Gaia-X

Roland is the COO of Gaia-X from May 2022 onwards. He establishes effective policies, processes and organisations that promote the Gaia-X vision and mission. With over 20 years of international management and consulting experience in the IT industry, he brings strong leadership and digitalisation knowledge to the team. He has led a global service line, successfully delivered complex, critical programs, and managed multinational development-, delivery- and partner organisations at companies like EDS, HP, A1 Telekom Austria, Microsoft and Detecon. Roland oversaw comprehensive innovation and transformation initiatives in various industries in Europe and the USA. He holds a master’s degree in “Engineering Management” from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. He speaks English and German and lives in Vienna.

Mark Kuehner

VP, AP Industries and Experience

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 leading voice behind the “Open Reference Architecture” for Europe’s next-gen cloud stack. 

Hubert Tardieu

Independent Board Member, Gaia-X

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.

Jakob Rehof

Professor of Computer Science, TU Dortmund University

Since 2006 Jakob Rehof is full professor of Computer Science at the TU Dortmund University, where he is chair of Software Engineering, and as of April 2024 director of the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Dortmund. By joint appointment, Rehof was director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Software- and System Engineering (ISST) in Dortmund 2006-2021, and since 2021 he is director of Research Strategy at the Fraunhofer-ISST. Jakob Rehof studied Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Copenhagen  and got his Ph.D. in Computer Science at DIKU, Department of Computer Science , University of Copenhagen. In 1997 Rehof was a visiting Researcher at the University of Stanford, CA, USA. From 1998 until 2006 he was a researcher at Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, USA. Prior to all of the above he studied Classical Philology (Latin & Greek) and Philosophy at the University of Aarhus and the University of Copenhagen and was a DAAD scholar at the Eberhard-Karls University of Tubingen. In 2003 Jakob Rehof received the CAV Award in Computer Aided Verification. Rehof is a member, of the editorial board of the Communications of the ACM. 

Joëlle Toledano

Professor Emeritus associated with the Governance and Regulation Chair, Paris Dauphine-PSL University, Member of the French National Digital Council

Joëlle Toledano is an emeritus professor of economics and a member of the “Governance and Regulation” Chair at Paris-Dauphine University. Furthermore, she serves as a member of the National Academy of Technologies of France and as board member of digital companies. She holds a PhD in mathematics and economics and has pursued a dual career in academia and business before becoming involved in public policy issues. From 2005 to 2011, she served on the board of the French regulatory authority for electronic communications and posts (Arcep), and from 2013 to 2022, on the board of the French national frequencies agency (Anfr). Joelle has published extensively on industrial economics and the economics and regulation of digital and postal services, including several books, numerous articles, and a series of public reports and research papers. Her latest book, GAFA: reprenons le pouvoir (Odile Jacob, 2020), has been the recipient of three awards, including the prize for the best economics book.