Europe’s food and beverage makers run global supply chains, connected factories, and some of the world’s most recognizable brands, all of which make them attractive targets for ransomware and disruption. The five CISOs below protect producers of spirits, cheese, ice cream, dairy, and packaged foods across France and the Netherlands. Their backgrounds range from the deck of a warship to the CIO’s office. One spent 21 years in the French Navy, commanding a ship before serving as information security chief at a NATO command in Virginia. Another was recruited as TomTom’s first CISO. A third created the first cybersecurity department at Bouygues Construction, and a fourth spent a decade as a CIO before taking on security at the same company.
Thomas Dégardin – Global CISO, Pernod Ricard
Thomas Dégardin began as a security administrator for TOTAL and a consultant on security projects for Orange, Veolia, and Danone. He managed global cybersecurity operations at Air Liquide and worked within the group CISO team at BNP Paribas before becoming CISO of Carrefour France, steering security governance across 40 business units. At Bouygues Construction he created the company’s first cybersecurity department, spanning GRC, architecture, SOC, CSIRT, and testing, with teams across Europe, Africa, and Asia, and he went on to direct cybersecurity for the wider Bouygues Group, coordinating its entities’ CISOs. He also chaired the cybersecurity and data protection committee of France’s national public works federation. Dégardin became Global CISO of Pernod Ricard in January 2025, leading cyber GRC, security architecture, and cyber defense, reporting to the ExCom and board, and defining minimum viable operations for critical activities. He spoke at Tech Show Paris in 2026.
Grégoire Turcat – Group CISO, Groupe Savencia
Grégoire Turcat spent 21 years in the French Navy, serving aboard patrol boats, frigates, and a submarine with responsibility for information and communication systems, and commanding a ship in 2005 and 2006. As a program officer, he helped deploy the navy’s operational command information system across 110 ships and shore sites. At NATO’s Allied Command Transformation headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, he led information security for its 800-person staff and then served as technical director, heading a 60-person service operations branch. He went on to lead the security accreditation office for operational information systems at the French Joint Staff. Turcat has served as Group CISO of Savencia since September 2017, with responsibilities that include the security of its industrial information systems.
Tim Fitz – Global CISO, The Magnum Ice Cream Company
Tim Fitz spent seven years as network and security manager at law firm Mintz Levin in Boston before consulting across EMEA from Germany. Over eight years at Intrum in the Netherlands, he rose from data center network and security manager to group information security officer and then CISO. He served as chief information security and data protection officer at Eneco, covering its Toon smart thermostat, and was recruited as TomTom’s first CISO. He then led security at two Blackstone portfolio companies, as Group CISO of Building Materials Europe, with 14,000 employees across 940 locations, and as CISO of Mileway. Fitz became Global CISO of The Magnum Ice Cream Company, maker of brands including Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s, and Cornetto, in April 2025. He holds CISSP, CISM, and CISA certifications.
Thibaut Roynette – CISO France, Danone
Thibaut Roynette began his career at Sopra, systematizing database anonymization for the French defense ministry’s financial system, and as a product manager at MyCommunIT. He moved into cybersecurity consulting at Beijaflore, coordinating security measures with the CISOs of about 40 AXA Group entities, and at Sopra Steria, then set up a Paris office for the cybersecurity practice of Airbus subsidiary APSYS, leading industrial and OT security work. After advising BNP Paribas in Switzerland on risk analysis, he served as CISO of software companies DiliTrust and Universign, maintaining ISO 27001 certification and eIDAS qualification for trust services. Roynette became CISO for Danone in France in March 2023. He holds ISO 27001 Lead Auditor and Lead Implementer, ISO 27005, and EBIOS certifications.
Carlo Alexander Schreurs – Global CISO, FrieslandCampina
Carlo Alexander Schreurs spent a decade at IBM in project and account leadership, then served as director of operations at Fujitsu and head of advanced solutions for Benelux, Germany, and the Nordics at Cognizant. He joined FrieslandCampina in 2012 as head of global infrastructure and went on to serve as director of ICT, EMEA CIO, CIO of its €1.8 billion Ingredients business group, and B2B CIO. Schreurs became Global CISO in February 2023, leading digital safety and cybersecurity for the €13 billion dairy cooperative across more than 30 countries and around 22,000 employees. He founded the Transformative Trust keynote practice, recently addressing 600 leaders at a global executive forum, has served on the board of the CISO Platform Nederland since 2025, and holds CISM and CISSP certifications.
Securing What Europe Eats and Drinks
These five CISOs bring very different experience to protecting Europe’s food and beverage makers. Turcat and Dégardin carried military and multi-industry security leadership into their groups, while Fitz built a career across consulting, logistics, and technology. Schreurs moved from the CIO’s chair into security, and Roynette brought OT and trust services expertise to Danone. Together they keep the factories, supply chains, and brands behind Europe’s tables running securely.
Discover more CISOs securing their organizations:
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- Securing the Integrators: The EU’s IT Services Cybersecurity Leaders to Watch
- Formula for Security: The EU’s Pharmaceutical CISOs to Watch
- Care and Cover: Ireland’s Healthcare Cybersecurity Leaders to Watch
- Covered and Protected: The UK’s Insurance CISOs to Watch
- Dreaming Spires, Hardened Defences: The UK’s Higher Education CISOs to Watch
John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.