A steel and mining group with operations around the world. A media company that has grown through acquisitions. An appliance maker formed from a deal between two manufacturers. A bank becoming a new brand. A construction group going digital. Holding one security approach together across business units, countries, and changing structures is a challenge of its own, and the five cyber leaders below, based in Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands, each face a different version of it.
Nik Puri – Group CIO & CISO, ArcelorMittal
When FedEx acquired TNT, Nik Puri was the global IT lead for the integration of a $7 billion business, part of a small executive team running it day to day. He went on to serve as FedEx Express’s international CIO, responsible for IT across Europe, Latin and Central America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, where he consolidated seven data centers into a hybrid colocation and cloud estate. Earlier, as vice president of information security and IT governance, risk and compliance for FedEx Services, he held global responsibility for security across more than 200 countries and presented security issues to the board. Since October 2024 he has been Group CIO and CISO of ArcelorMittal in Luxembourg, leading technology across the group’s global steel manufacturing operations while overseeing enterprise-wide cybersecurity for its digital assets and industrial systems. He has been writing about building an OT security center of excellence and connecting security with the group’s cloud and AI transformation.
Thomas Colyn – CISO & Director Technology Platforms, DPG Media
Thomas Colyn learned security in uniform. As an officer with the Belgian Defence, he served in operations and training with a communication and information systems group, taught network and security at the Defence communication and information school, and became an information system security manager. He joined DPG Media IT as CISO in 2020, and has since added a series of technology leadership roles, becoming director of technology platforms in February 2026 while remaining CISO. In 2023, he described how DPG Media’s acquisition strategy shapes its cybersecurity, with each acquisition adding attack surface, tool complexity, and integration work. In September 2026 he took part in Evanta’s Benelux CISO town hall.
Paola Meroni – Head of Information Security, Beko Europe
In 2025, Paola Meroni moved from Whirlpool to Beko Europe, the business established through an agreement between Arçelik and Whirlpool, which operates subsidiaries and production sites across Europe. As head of information security, she leads security strategy and governance across the company, protecting corporate, customer, and product information, and overseeing cyber risk, third-party risk, security by design, and compliance with regulations including GDPR, NIS2, the Cyber Resilience Act, and PCI DSS. At Whirlpool she was global privacy manager, bridging cybersecurity and privacy legal teams and contributing to its AI governance program. Before that, she led security and privacy at Vodafone Automotive and spent more than a decade in security and compliance at Vodafone, after starting her career as a network and system administrator and teaching electronics. An electronic engineering graduate of the Politecnico di Milano, she holds certifications including CISSP, CRISC, CIPP/E, and AIGP, and writes for Clusit, the Italian information security association.
Dennis Pokupec – CSO/CISO, Crédit Agricole Deutschland
Dennis Pokupec is helping turn a consumer credit bank into a retail bank. He joined Creditplus Bank as chief security officer and CISO in 2022, and in October 2026 Crédit Agricole announced the launch of Crédit Agricole Deutschland as a German retail bank. He has described how the launch brought together his own security team, the group’s security teams, and external providers, with security governance spanning integrations and delivery partners. Before the bank, he was CISO of insurance group Viridium and a consultant at Sopra Steria. Trained in security and safety engineering, he also coaches CISOs, speaks at international events including the 2026 CISO 360 Global Congress, and received a CIO200 Next-Gen Award in 2024.
Jurre Horsels – Director Security, Royal BAM Group
Construction is going digital, and at Royal BAM Group, Jurre Horsels is responsible for making sure security, including operational technology, keeps up. Since February 2026 he has led the development and execution of BAM’s group-wide security strategy and framework, advising the executive committee on security matters. He arrived from VodafoneZiggo, where he rose from senior manager of corporate security to director of security. Before that, he spent nearly a decade at health insurer VGZ, first as corporate CISO and then as corporate information security and privacy officer and data protection officer, reporting to the board and working with regulators including the Dutch central bank and data protection authority. He started his career as a senior consultant at Deloitte.
Holding It All Together
Puri led one of the parcel industry’s largest integrations before taking on a global steel group. Colyn secures a media company shaped by acquisitions, Meroni a manufacturer formed from a cross-border deal, and Pokupec a bank taking on a new identity. Horsels brings group-wide security to a construction company in the middle of its own digital shift. Each is working to keep one security approach coherent as the organization around it changes.
Discover more CISOs securing their organizations:
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- Policies, Payments and Boardrooms: CISOs to Watch in European Finance
- Securing Science: Europe’s Research Infrastructure Cyber Leaders to Watch
- North America’s Cyber Leaders With a Wider Mandate
- Security That Makes Sense: The UK Cyber Leaders Putting People First
- Beyond Awareness: The Nordic CISOs Making Secure Behavior Part of Everyday Work
John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.