Profiling Europe’s top 20 enterprise CIOs

Who are Europe’s most influential IT leaders? We identify the individuals with the biggest budgets, user-bases and challenges at the Continent’s largest companies.

2015 may have kicked off with fears of Europe slipping into a deflationary spiral, but for the region’s largest companies growth and competitive edge is increasingly a factor in how well they execute their digital strategies. And that puts unprecedented pressure on the individuals at the top of the profession across the Continent: Europe’s top 20 CIOs (see our 2015 ranking below, based on their organization’s last reported annual revenues).

IT leaders from the energy sector dominate the table, occupying 12 of the top 20 spots, while one-fifth are CIOs in the automobile industry. As in 2014, CIOs at German companies are the best represented, taking a third of the slots, followed by UK, Russian, French and Italian companies, each grabbing three entries. Notably, only two of the top 20 CIOs are women, compared to six in the chart for the Americas region.

While leading executives at Europe’s largest enterprises might be expected to serve longer tenures than their US counterparts, the rapidly evolving role of the CIO is reflected in several major new appointments since our previous list. Among these, BP’s Mike Gibbs has replaced its CIO of six years, Dana Deasy; Gazprom has appointed Sergey Kaunev to succeed Azamat Safarov; and BMW (new to the top 20) has promoted Klaus Straub to lead IT following Karl-Erich Probst’s retirement.

EUROPE’S TOP ENTERPRISE CIOS*
Company (HQ)	Revs (€bn)	Head of IT
1. Royal Dutch Shell (NL/UK)	346.2	Alan Matula
2. BP (UK)	298.4	Mike Gibbs
3. Volkswagen (Germany)	197.0	Martin Hofmann
4. Total (France)	189.5	Frédéric Gimenez
5. Glencore Xstrata (Switzerland)	180.5	Cyril Reol
6. Gazprom (Russia)	124.4	Sergey Kaunev
7. E.ON (Germany)	122.4	Edgar Aschenbrenner
8. Daimler (Germany)	118.0	Michael Gorriz
9. Eni (Italy)	115.0	Gianluigi Castelli
10. Rosneft (Russia)	111.2	Valery Nikitin
11. Allianz (Germany)	110.8	Ralf Schneider
12. Lukoil (Russia)	106.5	Alexander Pruzhinin
13.Axa (Germany)	91.2	Dirk Marzluf
14. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (Italy)	86.8	Gilberto Ceresa (co-head) Scott Sandschafer (co-head)
15. Carrefour (France)	84.0	Renaud de Barbuat
16. Tesco (UK)	83.7	Mike McNamara
17. Statoil (Norway)	81.8	Sonja Chirico Indrebø
18. ENGIE (France)	81.3	Véronique Durand-Charlot
19. Enel (Italy)	80.5	Carlo Bozzoli
20. BMW (Germany)	76.1	Klaus Straub
* CIOs at the 20 largest European-headquartered companies, based on last reported annual revenues. Currency conversions averaged over companies' fiscal year, unless directly specified

1
Alan Matula
EVP & CIO
Royal Dutch Shell

Alan Matula was appointed CIO at Royal Dutch Shell in July 2006, when he introduced ‘OneIT’ as the third phase of Shell’s IT transformation. Before that he was the general manager for strategy, projects and solutions at Shell International and has worked in various other Shell units since 1982. Originally from Chicago, Matula has a degree in quantitative business analysis from Indiana University and an executive MBA from Houston Baptist University. He also serves as a director of connected vehicle services company Airbiquity.

2
Mike Gibbs
Group CIO
BP
The former VP and CIO of BP’s refining and marketing operations, Mike Gibbs became group CIO of the London-headquartered oil and gas giant in November 2013. He replaced Dana Deasy (see November 2013 Appointments), with whom he’d worked for five years as part of the IT leadership team. Before joining BP in 2008, Gibbs spent almost 30 years rising through the ranks of Houston-based Conoco and then ConocoPhillips (after the two oil companies merged in 2002), ultimately becoming CIO for the group’s downstream business. Earlier roles included IS manager for Commercial & Corporate Staff and for the refining and marketing unit for Europe and Asia-Pacific at Conoco in London. He has a degree in management science from Oklahoma State University and participated in the Executive Management Program at Penn State University and the Concours CIO of the Future Development Program.

3
Martin Hofmann
Head of group IT
Volkswagen

Dr Martin Hofmann is head of group IT at Volkswagen AG, having been appointed to this role in December 2011. Prior to this, he’d been head of organizational development for the company since 2008, initially joining Volkswagen in 2001. Hofmann has also held international roles at Electronic Data Systems Corporation, including head of Digital Markets Solutions for the US. 

4
Frédéric Gimenez
Group CIO
Total
Oil and gas IT veteran Frédéric Gimenez was appointed as Total’s group CIO, director of its information systems and telecommunications group in March 2015. Gimenez joined the Paris-headquartered company in 1994 and has led technology across a broad range of roles. From 2004 to 2008, Gimenez set up and managed the SAP Competency Center for Total’s Refining and Marketing operations, following a Europe-wide rollout of the business applications package. He then moved on to lead IT in the UK for two years before returning to Paris as head of infrastructure and production, again within the Refining and Marketing business unit, in charge of data centers, telecoms, servers, storage and all associated operations. During his time in that position he also established Total’s first global offshore outsourcing contract. That led to his appointment as deputy VP for information systems for Refining and Marketing, then VP information systems for Total’s Refining and Chemicals business – the same role held by his predecessor, Patrick Hereng.

5
Cyril Reol
Group CIO
Glencore Xstrata
Cyril Reol has been head of IT at Glencore Xstrata since the two mining and metals companies merged in May 2013. He spent the previous five years as group CIO at Glencore International and was earlier senior manager of energy and utilities at LogicaCMG and CEO of Altea Geneva. He holds a master’s degree in business administration and computer sciences.

6
Sergey Kaunev
Director general of Gazprom Inform
Gazprom

Sergey Kaunev was appointed director general of Gazprom Inform in April 2014, succeeding Azamat Safarov. From 2007 to 2009, Kaunev was deputy head of the Procurement and Supply Directorate, deputy head and then head of Information Management Systems Directorate of Gazprom Inform (then Informgazinvest). In 2009, Kaunev was appointed deputy director general of IT and deputy director general for ERP information management systems.

7
Edgar Aschenbrenner
CIO and chairman of E.ON Business Services
E.ON

Edgar Aschenbrenner was appointed CIO of E.ON in 2009 and a year later became chairman of the management board of E.ON IT (now part of E.ON Business Services). Since October 2013, as chairman of E.ON’s Business Services organization, he has also been responsible for finance and HR services. Earlier in his career, Aschenbrenner was managing director of HP’s services organization.

8
Michael Gorriz
CIO and head of IT management
Daimler

Dr Michael Gorriz has served as CIO and head of information technology management at Daimler since January 2008. He is responsible for the strategy, planning and development of all IT systems, as well as the operation of all data centers and communication networks at the automaker. He began his career at German aerospace company Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (later known as the Daimler-Benz affiliate DASA). From 1994, he led Daimler-Benz Aerospace in Mexico, and in 1997 became general manager of Nortel DASA’s Enterprise Networks division. In early 2000, Dr Gorriz moved to Daimler’s IT management area as VP IT business systems and was promoted to CIO of Mercedes-Benz Cars and Vans in 2005.

• Michael Gorriz left Daimler to become group CIO at Standard Chartered Bank in July 2015 (see April 2015 Appointments).

9
Gianluigi Castelli
CIO
Eni

Gianluigi Castelli has been CIO at Eni since 2006. From 1997 to 2001, he worked at the Fiat Group — initially as CIO of Fiat Auto and then as managing director and general manager of its software services company. Castelli then held a range of roles at Vodafone Group from 2001 to 2006, joining as CIO of Vodafone Italy before becoming CIO of the entire group. Earlier in his career, Castelli was CIO of Infostrada.


10
Valery Nikitin
CIO
Rosneft
Valery Nikitin took over the top IT job at Rosneft in May 2015. Nikitin replaced Anton Strokovich, who had led IT since the Russian state-controlled oil and gas company’s acquisition of rival TNK-BP in 2013. Commanding an IT budget of around R50 billion ($776m) and serving over 100,000 users, Nikitin inherited an IT strategy that prioritizes the creation of a common business information architecture. This program is aimed not only at unifying data from its SAP ERP systems but providing timely and accurate information to management — whether at their desks or on mobile devices — and for feeding into automated business processes. 

11
Ralf Schneider
CIO
Allianz
Ralf Schneider is CIO at Allianz Group, having been promoted to this role in October 2010. He was simultaneously appointed Member of Management Board of AMOS (Allianz Managed Operations & Services SE) with responsibility for IT. Prior to this, Schneider was CIO of Allianz Deutschland AG, initially joining the company in 1995 on a fast-track management development program. He holds a PhD in computer science from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität of Munich.

12
Alexander Pruzhinin
Director general, Lukoil-Inform
Lukoil
Alexander Pruzhinin has been global CIO for Lukoil and director general of Lukoil-Inform, the Russian energy company’s IT service provider, since June 2012. Earlier, he was Lukoil-Inform’s deputy director, responsible for the group’s management and IS systems, automatic control systems, ICT equipment and information security. He holds master’s degrees in both computing and electronics.

13
Dirk Marzluf
CIO, AXA Group
AXA
Dirk Marzluf was made CIO of AXA Group in January 2013. He was previously CEO of AXA Technology Services, the organization managing IT infrastructures globally for AXA. He assumed that role in 2011, having joined the company as managing director of AXA Technology Services for Switzerland in 2007, and becoming the services group’s head of the Central and Eastern Europe region in 2008. Before that he was global CTO at Winterthur Insurance Company and CTO at DaimlerChrysler Services IT, having begun his career at Andersen Consulting.

14 (co-heads of IT)
Gilberto Ceresa
CIO- EMEA and Latin America
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Gilberto Ceresa joined the Fiat Group in 1989 and has held a variety of roles within the IT organization, including head of IT for international activities in Eastern Europe, Turkey, South America, Asia and Africa. In 2004, he became executive coordinator of Group Executive Council activities for the Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) Management Team and CNH, Fiat’s agricultural and construction equipment maker, and in 2007 took on additional roles as head of IT for FGA and IT coordinator for the Fiat Group.

Scott Sandschafer
VP and CIO - North America and Asia Pacific
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
Scott Sandschafer was appointed VP and CIO for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles – North America and Asia Pacific in December 2009. He joined from CNH Industrial, where he was senior director of its SAP program, sales and marketing. Sandschafer also worked at Accenture for 10 years, leading global information and communication technology programs. He now plays a key role on the FCS US Global Diversity Council and is the executive sponsor of the Latins in Connection employee resource group.

15
Renaud de Barbuat
CIO
Carrefour
Renaud de Barbuat was appointed CIO of Carrefour in March 2015, replacing Hervé Thoumyre, who had held the top IT role since 2007. De Barbuat was group CIO at electronic systems company Thales until September 2013, when he founded and became president of consulting company STRADIGIS. He had spent six years as group CIO at EDF, from 2002 to 2008.

16
Mike McNamara
CIO
Tesco

Mike McNamara has been CIO at Tesco and a member of the retailer's Executive Committee since March 2011. He joined the company in 1998 as an IT director, having previously worked at Accenture and BT. From 1999 to 2006 he was CTO and sat on the board of tesco.com, leading it from its inception to becoming a fully online platform, including the national rollout of the service. In 2006, McNamara became UK IT director and was promoted to worldwide head of operations development and IT in 2007.

• Mike McNamara left Tesco to become CIO at US retail giant Target in June 2015 (see February 2015 Appointments). 

17
Sonja Chirico Indrebø
CIO
Statoil
Sonja Chirico Indrebø is the CIO of Statoil. She initially joined the company as a senior engineer in offshore telecommunications and has held several roles within the company’s IT business. She previously worked as an engineer in Aker Solutions’ Oil and Gas engineering group and holds a degree in electronic and electrical engineering from the University of Surrey. Twitter: @sonjaci
See our series of Big Thinker interviews with Sonja Chirico Indrebø.


18
Véronique Durand-Charlot
Chief information officer
ENGIE Group

Véronique Durand-Charlot is CIO of ENGIE Group (formerly GDF SUEZ), a global energy player, and a member of the Group’s Executive Committee. She joined EDF GDF in 1980, where she held various management positions in energy distribution. In 1995, she became head of the Asnières distribution center. In 1999, Durand-Charlot was made quality management representative at EDF GDF Services. She joined Gaz de France in 2002 before becoming CIO in 2004. In this role, she managed the opening up of the energy markets to competition and the separation of EDF and GDF, and prepared the latter’s merger with SUEZ. When Gaz de France and SUEZ merged in 2008, she became CIO of the new GDF SUEZ group, leading major IT projects to integrate and transform the company. GDF Suez was renamed ENGIE Group in April 2015.

19
Carlo Bozzoli
Head of global information and communication technology
Enel
Carlo Bozzoli has been head of global information and communication technology at Enel since August 2014. He joined in 1984, and held several managerial positions first in the Generation Division until 1999, then in the ICT and Distribution divisions. From 2009 to 2014 he was head of Network Commercial Services, responsible for metering and energy balance, grid connection, billing and credit management, energy traders management, quality of services and customer care. From 2006 to 2009 he was head of ICT Demand and Delivery for Infrastructures & Networks Division and responsible for its smart metering project.

20
Klaus Straub
CIO and SVP
BMW
Klaus Straub was selected as SVP and CIO of BMW in August 2014, tasked with leading all internal and external IT functions globally. He was formerly its head of organizational development and process management. Before moving to BMW in 2012, Straub was CIO at Volkswagen Group’s Audi brand for seven years. A trained engineer, Straub was director of HR Systems at Daimler from 1990 to 2001 and took his first CIO role at Siemens VDO Automotive in 2002.