Johan Kestens is the Head of Information Security International at BNY Mellon and is responsible for managing regulatory inspections, inquiries and communications, client inquires, and has regional oversight of information security. He ensures the firm maintains an adequate cyber security posture in the asset management and software operations businesses. 

Prior to his current role, Johan served as CIO of the European Bank at BNY Mellon where he built out a risk management organization and remediated all findings of an ECB inspection in 2018. He also created international oversight bodies which included building out new processes, business intelligence tools, strategy development, and disaster recovery capabilities to recover from a major data loss caused by severe cyber incidents.

Johan has over 30 years of experience working for leading technology and finance companies, including ING Belgium, A.T. Kearney, SAP, SWIFT and McKinsey & Company. He is an action-oriented executive and decision-maker with a unique combination of line management and consulting, functional expertise in technology and ICT, banking and insurance, people development and innovation. 

Johan has an MBA in Strategy from Vlerick Leuven-Gent Management School and a Masters in Electronics Engineering from Ghent University. He also graduated from London Business School’s Expanding Horizons Senior Leadership Program, an award-winning corporate executive development program. Johan has received various industry awards and was honored with the Global IT Architecture Award in 2015 and named Speaker of the Year by CIO Net in 2020.

Natasha is an experienced technology leader with a proven track record of 25+ years in financial services, technology and operations, solutions engineering, risk management and regulatory compliance, IT strategy and governance, building organisational consensus, partnering, innovation, customer-centric digital transformation and customer success.

Prior to joining Allianz Technology in March 2021 as Global Head of Infrastructure and Information Security, Natasha held business and technology leadership roles such as Global Head of Technology in Standard Chartered Bank, Global Head of IT Strategy and Global Head of IT, Information Security & Product Development Risk in Deutsche Bank. Natasha has extensive consulting and outsourcing experience with Accenture, Salesforce and EDS/Hewlett Packard.

As a child I grew up in a traditional and modest family. Far vacations and expensive hobbies were only a dream. Education and hard work were taught to me in an early stage, so I studied hard. I did love music however and played the drums on carton boxes of washing products (Dash). Did I know that I would work for that company a few years later...? Following the advice of my parents, I obtained my master degree in Applied Economic Sciences. My competencies did not go unnoticed and I received a spot to obtain a Doctor degree in economics. And believe it or not, on Saturdays I taught unemployed people “functional analysis”, paid by VDAB, my current employer. I ended the doctor studies after my military service (yes, we still had to do this then) and joined Procter & Gamble. As I was not into an academic career, P&G was pretty much a dream come true. I spent 11 years at P&G and still consider this to be the best “school” ever. I also received the opportunity to spend 3 years in the USA, Cincinnati Ohio for P&G, as an expat, learning how to work with different cultures across the globe. Fascinating. But one day in 2001, Interbrew (now ABInbev) phoned me for a job and I decided to take it. I went from foam from soap to foam from beer. No big deal, right? However, this put a turbo on my career because after a few years I moved forward from “VP IT Benefralux” to “SVP Global Business Systems Europe” to “VP Global Business Services (InBev)”. During this time I was elected in the Top 25 IT personalities by DataNews, which was a true honor. It was truly a roller coaster for a guy of 40, running 1000 people or so and well over 100 mio euros budget. Once again a great ‘school’. But it also ended rather abruptly. I was fired on a Friday in 2005, completely unexpected. It was probably the biggest learning in my career: passion for a job should not become an obsession, ... and high trees catch a lot of wind in the Amazon forest... But with my mantra “that each day brings an opportunity” I started my own consulting company and after a few ad-interim CIO positions I started at Nuon (3rd largest energy company in Belgium) in 2008. I became a few years later COO and moved into the business, maintaining my responsibility for IT. Also this was a roller coaster because during my period (9 years) the company was sold 3 times: to Vattenfall, Eni and Eneco. Great learning, but not easy to keep the workforce motivated and focused. Before the sale to Eneco I was in charge of the retail and B2B business of Eni Belgium (general management). Again I learnt quite a few things, one of which is that making money is far more difficult than spending... In 2018, I took the position of CIO VDAB. I felt I had to give something back to society and VDAB allows me to do just that. What I did as a youngster for a few unemployed people (teaching courses) I am now implementing on a much larger scale for the whole society providing digital tools for jobseekers in Flanders. In general, I learnt that being successful is all about people; getting the right people around you, trusting them with accountability, and working together as a team on the vision you want to reach. Secondly, constant learning is crucial. And remember each day is an opportunity to make things happen... as one of my favorite characters says “Make it so” (JL Picard - Star Trek TNG). And yes, life is good for me, I can now play drums on a real Roland electronic drum set. And I can sail around beautiful places in the world.

Slawek Soszynski is a seasoned CIO and CTO with 20+ years of experience in Technology and Cybersecurity at top financial institutions including ING, J.P. Morgan and Citi. He has proven track record of leading successful multi-million dollar P&L, international talents development and operating at Management Board level within Financial, Banking and Insurance sectors. Acting as agent of change by identifying strategic need, delivering solutions, leading transformation and gaining support from stakeholders at all levels. Slawek is a trusted and strategic advisor to startups with 150+ M&A and patents development experience.

Piotr began his journey in the water sector after graduating with a Bachelor’s in Science and a Master’s in Finance, IT & Management in 2011. Starting as an intern in MPWIK waterworks company in Wroclaw, Poland, he quickly rose through the organization where he now has been acting as the CIO for five years and the CFO for seven years. He has an ITIL Expert certification, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification, as well as being an active international EFQM assessor. 

He has gained a plethora of experience in countless IT projects over the last eight years. One of them resulted in the creation of an ecosystem of IT companies which, jointly with MPWiK S.A., developed and commercialized software for the water supply sector, e.g., software that helps reduce water losses; so far it has been implemented in 16 waterworks companies as well as having had a positive impact on water saving.

From the very beginning, Piotr has played a pivotal role in the company's digital transformation process while at the same time managing many projects, which supported the company in key areas such as process optimization, increasing customer satisfaction (internal and external) and development tools which supported the reduction of water losses. Piotr was responsible for implementing the EFQM model which consisted of 50+ improving projects which were aimed at enhancing the entire organization (recognized by international assessors). These and other efforts were awarded in the Digital Excellence Awards competition organized by CIONET Poland in 2017 and 2021.

Currently, the biggest project Piotr is working on is the creation of the largest system of remote water meter readers in Poland, which uses LoRaWAN technology. This is another step that, on the one hand, will help to reduce water losses even further, and on the other hand, will provide our customers with new services that will utilize data about water consumption in real time.

The wide array of his interests includes actively using modern technologies in order to improve everyday business and life as well as methods to save our beautiful planet. In his personal life, he enjoys quality time with his wife and dogs as well jogging and spending time in nature. He also adores gardening and doing a lot of home improvement activities.

Lourens Visser is CIO of the Dutch Central Government (CIO Rijk). In his role Lourens is committed to ensure the central government has a future-proof IT landscape and becomes more resilient to threats in the digital world. He has an extensive experience as CIO at the Custodial Institutions Agency of the Ministry of Justice and Security and at the Port of Rotterdam, next to several management positions in the private IT sector.

Axel joined the Executive Management Team of Allianz Technology as the Chief Technology and Transformation Officer of Area 1 in January 2021. From 2018 to January 2021, he was additionally CTO of the Allianz Germany AG. The double role enabled him to successfully lead one of Allianz ́ largest transformation program: the transfer of IT units and applications from Allianz Germany to Allianz Technology. Prior to this, Axel spent three years overseas as CEO & President of Allianz Technology of America. Before this, Axel was Head of B2B2C at Allianz Managed Operations & Services SE and led an extensive global carve-out and transformation program for Allianz Global Assistance and AWP in 28 countries. Axel has been with Allianz since October 2002 and has since been able to demonstrate his extensive specialist IT management knowledge, first in sales and later in many different executive positions at Allianz Group, including Versicherungs-AG and Allianz Technology SE (incl. predecessors).

Axel completed his studies in the areas of information systems and business administration with a Ph.D. from the University of Augsburg. He is fluent in German, English, and French. Axel is married and has two children. In his free time, he enjoys coding, playing tennis and watching American basketball.