Most customers never see the work that keeps a financial relationship intact. It happens when a claims handler spots a phishing email, when a security operations centre holds steady through a restructuring, when a new digital product clears governance before launch, and when a board asks the right questions about cyber risk. The five CISOs below work at those points, one country each, from Valais to Dublin.
Jeremy Richard – CISO, Groupe Mutuel
Long before he ran security at a Swiss insurer, Jeremy Richard had logged more than 150 paragliding flights. He has also played, refereed and umpired table tennis. Since May 2022, he has been CISO at Groupe Mutuel in Martigny, having joined as deputy CISO the previous August. People sit at the centre of his approach. Groupe Mutuel uses adaptable awareness training and phishing simulations to make security relevant to the staff who manage policyholder relationships. Jeremy held the same conviction at Gameloft in Montreal. As head of information security there, he and a colleague ran sessions showing employees what attackers do, from lock-picking to phishing. His earlier career took in information security leadership at Publicis Groupe in Paris and the CISO role at ACTICALL Group, where he set the cybersecurity strategy for 20 call centres in six countries. Payment security runs through his early years too. He led PCI DSS compliance projects at Crédit Agricole Cards & Payments and at Cdiscount, where the online payment platform was certified at the end of a one-year mission. In May 2024, he gave the opening speech at the Symposium Valaisan de la Donnée.
Eric Doyen – Group CISO, Malakoff Humanis
Eric Doyen did not start in security. He started in finance, joining Paribas in 1985 as a junior consultant working on front-office activities and financial models for the US market. Consulting in card payments for GIE Cartes Bancaires and project leadership at Société Générale followed. Security took over during nearly 16 years at Crédit Immobilier de France, where he eventually became group CSO. Two years as CISO at Generali came next. He joined Malakoff Humanis in 2012 to lead its information security unit, became director of operational IS security in 2019 and has been Group CISO since January 2024. During his years leading operational security, Malakoff Humanis transformed its security operations centre, building up monitoring and incident response while the organisation itself was going through change. Business continuity, disaster recovery and ISO 27001 governance remain long-standing specialisms.
Naveen Ullikashi – CISO, Allianz Direct
On 26 November, Naveen Ullikashi is set to moderate a panel on AI governance at a CIONET event in Frankfurt. It is a natural subject for the CISO of a digital insurer. He has held that role at Allianz Direct in Munich since November 2024, after arriving from PagoNxt, Santander’s payments company. There, he moved from head of enterprise infrastructure engineering to cyber CTO and then CISO within 15 months. His roots are in software. He began in web design and technology consulting before working as a software development engineer at BladeLogic and BMC Software. Away from security, he chairs the TUM EMBA IBC Alumni Club. Since 2017, he has also held the self-styled title of “Nomad of the Smash Grill” at the California Dreaming Food Truck. In his words: “When I need a break from smashing vulnerabilities, I smash burger here!”
Munawar Valiji – Group CISO, Close Brothers
Supermarkets, rail tickets, soft toys and now a financial services group: Munawar Valiji has led security in sectors with little in common beyond the customers who trust them. Since March 2025, he has been Group CISO at Close Brothers in London. He is responsible for the enterprise-wide cybersecurity strategy and for protecting financial assets, customer data and digital infrastructure while meeting global regulatory requirements. Before that came Group CISO at Sainsbury’s, almost four years as CISO at Trainline and a brief spell at Jellycat, which he summed up as “bringing FTSE 100 CISO mindset to a world of softness and fun”. Much of his grounding is in banking. Munawar spent a decade at JPMorgan Chase, rising to VP of information risk management, before roles at Citi and in Deloitte’s financial services technology risk practice. As a consultant, he specialised in translating technical issues into business risk for banking clients. Today, much of his work is with boards, executive committees, and audit and risk committees.
Gary Delaney – International CISO, BNY
In May 2026, Gary Delaney spoke at an Institute of Directors in Ireland event on board oversight of cyber security, covering assurance, accountability, and response and recovery. The boardroom is familiar ground. At AIB, he led the bank’s cyber security strategy, architecture and threat intelligence teams and delivered board updates and cyber training. More than four years as CISO of Bank of Ireland Group followed. Since December 2023, he has been Managing Director and International CISO at BNY in Dublin, responsible for security strategy for the bank’s international operations. His career has taken him through Ireland, the UK, the US and Australia, where he held security architecture and governance roles at National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank. One of his earliest jobs was security administrator at the Australian Jockey Club. From 2009 to 2015, he also taught finance on the MBA programme at IE Business School in Madrid, the same programme where he had graduated first in his year. Gary has served on the board of the Cyber Defence Alliance and champions Women in Cyber initiatives.
Fluent in the Business They Protect
Look past the job titles and a pattern appears. None of these five arrived in financial services as an outsider to money. Eric Doyen built financial models at Paribas before security was his career. Jeremy Richard made his name getting payment systems certified. Munawar Valiji spent a decade managing information risk at JPMorgan Chase. Naveen Ullikashi ran security for a payments company, and Gary Delaney taught finance to MBA students. That fluency matters more than it might seem. When a security leader understands how an insurer prices risk or how a bank answers to its board, the conversation about cyber exposure stops being a technical briefing and becomes a business one. Customers never see that conversation, but it shapes how well their trust is protected.
Discover more CISOs securing their organizations:
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- 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
- Going the Distance: The Marathon-Running CISOs to Watch
John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.