Europe’s power grids, gas networks, and water systems are among the continent’s most critical and most targeted infrastructure, and NIS2 has raised the stakes for everyone who protects them. The eight cyber leaders below secure utilities across France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Czechia, from national champions with hundreds of thousands of employees to regional water and grid operators. Their paths into security are remarkably varied. One edited France’s national risk assessment methodology while at ANSSI. Another designed control systems for combined-cycle power plants on four continents before becoming a CISO. A third started as a consumer research manager at Unilever, and a fourth built his career entirely in Czechia’s power industry, including the security of nuclear power plants.
Olivier Ligneul – Group CISO, EDF
Olivier Ligneul led the information security advisory team at ANSSI, France’s national cybersecurity agency, advising ministries and leading companies on projects of national interest including the state payroll system, Galileo, and France’s electronic voting system. He oversaw national, EU, and NATO security accreditation processes and edited and promoted EBIOS, France’s risk management methodology. He then led technical and IT infrastructure coordination for the French financial ministries. Ligneul has served as Group CISO of EDF since March 2015, leading a global security organization of 350 people across IT and OT for a group with 200,000 employees and more than €100 billion in annual revenue. In 2026 he discussed IT/OT convergence for industrial security in an interview with inCyber. A black belt in Shotokan karate, he also practices Kali Eskrima and became president of his local karate club in 2026.
Jesus Sanchez – Head of Global Cybersecurity, Naturgy
Jesus Sanchez spent his early career as a senior consultant in process reengineering and IT for energy and utilities companies at NorSistemas and as a manager in EY’s energy and utilities practice. He joined Union Fenosa in 2002 as generation and trading systems manager and spent the following years in IT leadership across Gas Natural and Gas Natural Fenosa, including as director of application management and IT operations, responsible for DevOps, Lean, and ITIL transformation and more than 700 applications. Sanchez took over infrastructure, applications, and cybersecurity at Naturgy in 2018 and has led global cybersecurity since January 2019, driving the transformation of the group’s cybersecurity function toward cyber resilience and security by design. He has discussed energy sector cybersecurity in Vozpópuli, The Objective, and on the Cyberlideria podcast.
Jose Antonio Gutierrez Diaz – CISO, Iberdrola Energía Internacional
Jose Antonio Gutierrez Diaz is an industrial engineer who spent nearly nine years at IDOM designing instrumentation and control systems for combined-cycle and biomass power plants in Mexico, Tunisia, the UAE, Bangladesh, Germany, and Chile. After a stint as plant automation and OT manager at Endesa, he joined Iberdrola Renewables to manage control, SCADA, and communications for onshore wind and solar plants across Greece, Poland, Italy, Portugal, and Australia. As business information security officer for Iberdrola Renewables International, he led cybersecurity and data protection across a fleet of more than 3 GW, including OT security initiatives. Gutierrez Diaz became CISO of Iberdrola Energía Internacional in October 2024, reporting to its chief security officer and executive chairman and leading its cybersecurity plan, incident response, and NIS2 compliance. He holds an IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Fundamentals Specialist certification.
Laurent Amsel – Group CISO, ENGIE
Laurent Amsel has more than 30 years of experience in large international companies. He began in IT project management at Steria and Cegetel, then spent seven years as head of operations at Tele2 France, running a network serving 4 million voice and 400,000 ADSL customers and helping launch its triple-play offer. Over 11 years at SFR, he managed platforms of 6,000 servers and routers and led service engineering before becoming network CISO and then group CISO. At Carrefour he first led cybersecurity governance for 14 retail and banking business units across Europe, Asia, and Latin America, then served as Group CISO from 2020 to 2025, defining its cyber strategy and roadmap and speaking at Les Assises in 2024 on vulnerability management. Amsel became Group CISO of ENGIE in March 2025.
Benjamin Blampain – CISO, Société wallonne des eaux
Benjamin Blampain started as an IT expert at Dragone, carrying out missions in Montréal and Las Vegas, and founded TagExpert, a web development company, as well as Kollector, a service that tracked radio broadcasts of songs worldwide. At OncoDNA he served as CIO, then led the company to ISO 27001 certification as information security manager, repeating that success at Digital Orthopaedics, and he also served as interim CISO of BNP Paribas Cardif in Brussels. Blampain has served as CISO of Société wallonne des eaux, Wallonia’s public water utility, since 2019, leading its NIS compliance through an ISO 27001 framework and strengthening security across the OT and SCADA systems behind the region’s water supply.
Luisella ten Pierik – CISO, Stedin
Luisella ten Pierik began as a researcher and knowledge manager at Unilever Research, then spent five years as a category research manager and led change management for an SAP implementation. She moved into security as an SAP security and GRC consultant at Logica, then worked at Eneco as an IT business partner and information security officer. Ten Pierik became CISO of Stedin, the Rotterdam-region grid operator, in December 2016, building its cybersecurity function from the ground up into a mature, multidisciplinary organization of 68 people led through seven department heads, covering IT, OT, and the supply chain. She also helps shape Stedin’s wider resilience strategy across digital and physical security, continuity, and crisis management, and has served on the board of the CISO Platform Nederland since 2024.
Luigi Ballarano – Head of Cyber Security & Group CISO, Terna
Luigi Ballarano began as a computer engineer at Altran, Galileo Avionica, and GRTN before joining Terna, Italy’s electricity transmission system operator, in 2005. Over two decades there, he moved from IT project manager to head of the information security competence center and the 24/7 security operations center, then led security operations and data protection, the cyber defense center, and cyber security governance and architecture engineering. Ballarano became head of cyber security and Group CISO in August 2025. He sits on the board of the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti ISAC and the ICT security steering group of ENTSO-E, contributes to IEC standards on power system data and communication security, and holds CISM and ISO 27001 lead auditor certifications. He holds a computer engineering degree from the University of Naples.
Pavel Hejduk – CISO, ČEZ
Pavel Hejduk has spent his entire career in information and cyber security in the Czech power industry. He started as a system engineer at EN-DATA and an ICT security architect at CEZData in Pilsen, then spent nearly eight years as chief of ICT security at ČEZ, also serving as CISO of Telco Pro Services and deputy CISO. Hejduk has served as Group CISO of ČEZ since January 2017, responsible for security strategy, governance, risk, incident management, critical infrastructure, and the security of the group’s nuclear power plants across IT and OT, and chairs the group’s board of CISOs. He served on ENISA’s Advisory Group from 2023 to 2025 and has spoken on energy sector cybersecurity in the Czech trade press.
Keeping Europe’s Lights On
These eight leaders show how many paths lead into energy and utility security. Ligneul and Hejduk built their careers around national-scale and critical infrastructure security, while Gutierrez Diaz and Ballarano carried engineering and operations experience into cyber leadership. Sanchez, Amsel, and ten Pierik brought IT, telecom, and research backgrounds to some of Europe’s largest utilities, and Blampain applied an entrepreneur’s experience to securing a regional water supply. Together they protect the energy and water that Europe depends on every day.
Discover more CISOs securing their organizations:
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- Vault Keepers: Australia’s Banking CISOs to Watch
- Trust and Treasure: New Zealand’s Financial Services Cybersecurity Leaders to Watch
- Protecting the Patient: The Netherlands’ Hospital CISOs to Watch
- Public Service, Protected: New Zealand’s Government CISOs to Watch
- Power and Water: Denmark’s Energy and Utilities CISOs to Watch
John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.