Gunter Van Craen - CDIO at Bekaert - Embracing Digital Transformation

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Belgium 12-12-25 Squad Only Physical english
Everyone wants value for money. But in IT, that value is spread across infrastructure, software, services, and people. Your infra spend is creeping up. App maintenance is eating your budget. New development is exciting but comes with hidden overhead. And people costs, from operations to engineering, remain the largest, most overlooked slice. If you’re under pressure to optimise without compromise, this session brings the right questions, trade-offs, and shared lessons to the table.
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Poland 12-12-25 Invitation Only Virtual Polish
Skuteczne zarządzanie podatnościami w infrastrukturze krytycznej to coś więcej niż podstawowe zadanie każdej organizacji to odpowiedzialność za dostawy energii do milionów punktów poboru. Podatności są niczym mikropęknięcia w stalowych konstrukcjach mostów, często nie widoczne, wymagające wspólnej pracy wielu zespołów. To odpowiedzialne zadanie dotyczące utrzymania wysokiego poziomu cyberbezpieczeństwa. Podczas wystąpienia opowiemy, jak to robimy w tak dużej organizacji. Jak tworzymy i zarządzamy fundamentalnym procesem. W świecie, w którym atakujący nie śpią, przewaga należy do tych którzy potrafią patrzeć parę ruchów naprzód.
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Germany 15-12-25 Public Virtual german
Angesichts wachsender Cyberbedrohungen und der zunehmenden Automatisierung von Geschäftsprozessen blicken CIOs auf eine ereignisreiche Zeit zurück. Umso spannender ist die Frage, welche Herausforderungen und Chancen die IT-Welt künftig erwarten. ngesichts wachsender Cyberbedrohungen und der zunehmenden Automatisierung von Geschäftsprozessen blicken CIOs auf ein ereignisreiches Jahr 2024 zurück. Umso spannender ist die Frage, welche neuen Herausforderungen und Chancen die IT-Welt im Jahr 2025 erwarten.AA
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Poland 15-12-25 Invitation Only Virtual Polish
Choć sztuczna inteligencja opiera się na danych i algorytmach, to jej sukces zależy przede wszystkim od ludzi. Największe ryzyko w projektach AI nie kryje się w technologii, lecz w braku zrozumienia, zaufania i współpracy między zespołami. Porozmawiamy o tym, jak komunikacja może stać się katalizatorem transformacji — albo barierą, która zatrzyma rozwój.
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Belgium 16-12-25 Invitation Only Physical english
This CIONET Round Table will focus on how the IT department can be the enabler that unlocks organisational efficiencies and helps to improve the employee experience. We will explore how CIOs and Digital Leaders can fundamentally transform the internal service experience by breaking down organizational silos, orchestrating complex cross-functional workflows, and leveraging a unified platform to deliver a truly frictionless experience for every employee.
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Poland 16-12-25 Invitation Only Virtual Polish
Budowanie wartości z AI to dziś coś więcej niż zestaw projektów: to musi być program, który łączy architekturę danych, ludzi i procesy w spójną całość. Na przykładzie mBanku zobaczymy, jak podejście obejmujące całą organizację pozwala szybciej tworzyć reużywalne komponenty, zwiększać efektywność i realnie wspierać decyzje biznesowe. O tym, co działa, co zaskoczyło i czego nikt się nie spodziewał – porozmawiamy na spotkaniu.
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Belgium Dec 11, 2025 Country Members Physical english
Imagine being able to monitor, simulate, and optimise an entire city, factory, or supply chain in real time. Next-generation digital twins are making this vision a reality, transforming how we manage and understand complex systems. By creating dynamic virtual replicas of physical assets and processes, digital twins allow organisations to predict issues, optimize performance, and make data-driven decisions with unprecedented accuracy.This event will explore how digital twins are being used across industries to revolutionize the way we operate and maintain large-scale, intricate systems—whether it’s the infrastructure of a smart city, the efficiency of a factory floor, or the resilience of global supply chains.Examples of Digital Twins in Action:Smart Cities: Urban planners can use digital twins to simulate traffic flow, monitor energy usage, or predict the impact of weather events on infrastructure. This enables cities to optimize resources and improve the quality of life for their citizens.Factories of the Future: Manufacturing plants are leveraging digital twins to monitor equipment in real time, prevent downtime, and optimize production lines. With predictive analytics, factories can avoid costly breakdowns and improve overall efficiency.Supply Chain Management: Complex supply chains, spanning continents and industries, can be modeled as digital twins to track shipments, simulate disruptions, and optimize logistics. Businesses can reduce inefficiencies and respond faster to market demands.Key Themes:Real-Time Monitoring and Simulation: How digital twins provide real-time insights into complex systems, allowing for dynamic response and optimization.Predictive Power: Leveraging AI and data analytics, digital twins help organisations predict and mitigate issues before they happen, from equipment failures to supply chain bottlenecks.Scalability Across Ecosystems: Digital twins aren’t limited to individual assets—learn how they can be scaled across entire ecosystems like smart cities or global supply chains for maximum impact.Building Trust and Security: With digital twins handling critical infrastructure and sensitive data, what are the security and governance frameworks needed to ensure trust in these virtual systems?Why You Should Attend:Next-generation digital twins are no longer just a concept—they are revolutionizing industries by offering a new way to manage complexity. Whether you’re looking to optimize a city, factory, or supply chain, this event will provide practical insights into how digital twins can transform your organisation’s operations and drive future innovation.
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Germany Dec 15, 2025 Public Virtual german
Angesichts wachsender Cyberbedrohungen und der zunehmenden Automatisierung von Geschäftsprozessen blicken CIOs auf eine ereignisreiche Zeit zurück. Umso spannender ist die Frage, welche Herausforderungen und Chancen die IT-Welt künftig erwarten. ngesichts wachsender Cyberbedrohungen und der zunehmenden Automatisierung von Geschäftsprozessen blicken CIOs auf ein ereignisreiches Jahr 2024 zurück. Umso spannender ist die Frage, welche neuen Herausforderungen und Chancen die IT-Welt im Jahr 2025 erwarten.AA
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Belgium Dec 16, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english
This CIONET Round Table will focus on how the IT department can be the enabler that unlocks organisational efficiencies and helps to improve the employee experience. We will explore how CIOs and Digital Leaders can fundamentally transform the internal service experience by breaking down organizational silos, orchestrating complex cross-functional workflows, and leveraging a unified platform to deliver a truly frictionless experience for every employee.
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UK Dec 16, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english
At this CIONET executive roundtable – brought to you in association with UiPath – we’ll explore this question and more. Bringing together senior IT professionals from across multiple vertical markets, we will focus on the benefits of agentic AI as applied to end-to-end processes. And we’ll seek to understand how organisations might overcome automation barriers to drive greater value creation.
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Belgium Dec 18, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english
We look forward to brainstorming with you on how we can strengthen meaningful engagement among our participants, create valuable opportunities for visibility, foster peer-to-peer networking, and deliver impactful content. Your expertise and guidance will help shape our strategy for the coming year and ensure that we continue to provide the best possible value to our entire community. Together, we can build a stronger, more connected community that benefits us all.
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Germany Jan 19, 2026 Country Members Virtual german
Bei diesem „Spotlight“-Online-Event wird diskutiert, wie moderne Identity Security im Zeitalter autonomer KI-Agenten gestaltet werden kann. Teilnehmende erfahren, wie KI-Agenten als eigene Identitäten verwaltet werden, wie korrekte Zugriffsrechte für Mensch und Maschine sichergestellt werden und wie Zero-Standing-Risk-Ansätze vor modernen Bedrohungen schützen. Praxisnahe Einblicke unterstützen Unternehmen dabei, ihre Identity-Programme zukunftssicher auszurichten.
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Belgium Dec 11, 2025 Country Members Physical english
Imagine being able to monitor, simulate, and optimise an entire city, factory, or supply chain in real time. Next-generation digital twins are making this vision a reality, transforming how we manage and understand complex systems. By creating dynamic virtual replicas of physical assets and processes, digital twins allow organisations to predict issues, optimize performance, and make data-driven decisions with unprecedented accuracy.This event will explore how digital twins are being used across industries to revolutionize the way we operate and maintain large-scale, intricate systems—whether it’s the infrastructure of a smart city, the efficiency of a factory floor, or the resilience of global supply chains.Examples of Digital Twins in Action:Smart Cities: Urban planners can use digital twins to simulate traffic flow, monitor energy usage, or predict the impact of weather events on infrastructure. This enables cities to optimize resources and improve the quality of life for their citizens.Factories of the Future: Manufacturing plants are leveraging digital twins to monitor equipment in real time, prevent downtime, and optimize production lines. With predictive analytics, factories can avoid costly breakdowns and improve overall efficiency.Supply Chain Management: Complex supply chains, spanning continents and industries, can be modeled as digital twins to track shipments, simulate disruptions, and optimize logistics. Businesses can reduce inefficiencies and respond faster to market demands.Key Themes:Real-Time Monitoring and Simulation: How digital twins provide real-time insights into complex systems, allowing for dynamic response and optimization.Predictive Power: Leveraging AI and data analytics, digital twins help organisations predict and mitigate issues before they happen, from equipment failures to supply chain bottlenecks.Scalability Across Ecosystems: Digital twins aren’t limited to individual assets—learn how they can be scaled across entire ecosystems like smart cities or global supply chains for maximum impact.Building Trust and Security: With digital twins handling critical infrastructure and sensitive data, what are the security and governance frameworks needed to ensure trust in these virtual systems?Why You Should Attend:Next-generation digital twins are no longer just a concept—they are revolutionizing industries by offering a new way to manage complexity. Whether you’re looking to optimize a city, factory, or supply chain, this event will provide practical insights into how digital twins can transform your organisation’s operations and drive future innovation.
Read More
Germany Dec 15, 2025 Public Virtual german
Angesichts wachsender Cyberbedrohungen und der zunehmenden Automatisierung von Geschäftsprozessen blicken CIOs auf eine ereignisreiche Zeit zurück. Umso spannender ist die Frage, welche Herausforderungen und Chancen die IT-Welt künftig erwarten. ngesichts wachsender Cyberbedrohungen und der zunehmenden Automatisierung von Geschäftsprozessen blicken CIOs auf ein ereignisreiches Jahr 2024 zurück. Umso spannender ist die Frage, welche neuen Herausforderungen und Chancen die IT-Welt im Jahr 2025 erwarten.AA
Read More
Belgium Dec 16, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english
This CIONET Round Table will focus on how the IT department can be the enabler that unlocks organisational efficiencies and helps to improve the employee experience. We will explore how CIOs and Digital Leaders can fundamentally transform the internal service experience by breaking down organizational silos, orchestrating complex cross-functional workflows, and leveraging a unified platform to deliver a truly frictionless experience for every employee.
Read More
UK Dec 16, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english
At this CIONET executive roundtable – brought to you in association with UiPath – we’ll explore this question and more. Bringing together senior IT professionals from across multiple vertical markets, we will focus on the benefits of agentic AI as applied to end-to-end processes. And we’ll seek to understand how organisations might overcome automation barriers to drive greater value creation.
Read More
Belgium Dec 18, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english
We look forward to brainstorming with you on how we can strengthen meaningful engagement among our participants, create valuable opportunities for visibility, foster peer-to-peer networking, and deliver impactful content. Your expertise and guidance will help shape our strategy for the coming year and ensure that we continue to provide the best possible value to our entire community. Together, we can build a stronger, more connected community that benefits us all.
Read More
Germany Jan 19, 2026 Country Members Virtual german
Bei diesem „Spotlight“-Online-Event wird diskutiert, wie moderne Identity Security im Zeitalter autonomer KI-Agenten gestaltet werden kann. Teilnehmende erfahren, wie KI-Agenten als eigene Identitäten verwaltet werden, wie korrekte Zugriffsrechte für Mensch und Maschine sichergestellt werden und wie Zero-Standing-Risk-Ansätze vor modernen Bedrohungen schützen. Praxisnahe Einblicke unterstützen Unternehmen dabei, ihre Identity-Programme zukunftssicher auszurichten.
Read MorePSB Industries (Texen) relies on Trend Micro to protect its infrastructure and industrial assets
Relies on Trend Micro to protect its infrastructure and industrial assets
OVERVIEW
PSB Industries is an international industrial group specializing in packaging for the luxury and beauty brand, Texen and health brand, Plastibell. The group, which achieved sales of €275.2 million in 2018, currently operates 15 industrial sites, 3 commercial sites, and 3 administrative sites across China, Poland, France, Mexico, and the US. To support growth following acquisitions in 2015 and 2016, PSB restructured itself by organizing the sale of its Agri-Food and Distribution division and the spinoff of its subsidiary, Baikowski.
CHALLENGES
This dynamic growth strategy, however, has made the IT environment more complex, as heterogeneous security layers were combined, leading to obsolescence and developmental challenges for PSB’s subsidiaries. With a complex IT perimeter organized in silos, composed of nearly a thousand workstations and 150 servers, the group’s IT environment presented high security risks. “It had become urgent to standardize IT on a global level and to rapidly operate our digital shift by activating different projects such as virtualization, network interconnection, centralization of applications with SAP and migration to Office 365”, explains Jean-Pierre Rouillere, IT Director Network Infrastructure and Group. “In terms of security, our group had to recreate robust conditions, while being ready for the compliance requirements required for our activities.”
Dealing with a security policy deemed too restrictive for users remained a main challenge for a group so dedicated to innovation as PSB. Management and shareholders found the need to quickly develop a unified policy to oversee their global IT environment.
WHY TREND
As PSB Industries was using the Trend Micro Apex One™ solution, turning to Trend Micro for an optimized security infrastructure seemed like a perfect fit for the group. Trend Micro’s suite of connected security solutions were very quick to implement, preventing data loss and protecting threats at the endpoint, web, and messaging level while offering flexible on-premises or cloud deployment. “What we liked about Trend Micro is the overall consistency that we found, both in terms of solutions, administration, deployment, and contacts. Today, we are protected end-to-end by Trend Micro solutions”, says Rouillere.
"What we liked about Trend Micro is the overall consistency that we found, both in terms of solutions, administration, deployment, and contacts. Today, we are protected end-to-end by TrendMicro solutions."
Jean-Pierre Rouillere
IT Director Network Infrastructure
and Group, PSB Industries
SOLUTION
The functionality of virtual patching on SAP, integrated with Trend Micro™ Deep Security™ solution, was also a fundamental element in the group‘s selection process, freeing the IT team from the time-consuming task of applying emergency fixes. The connectivity of Trend Micro solutions and their ability to interface with cloud environments has enabled PSB to secure their Microsoft® Office 365® environments. Interfacing directly to Office 365 via APIs, Trend Micro™ Cloud App Security protects incoming and outgoing emails against advanced malware, while ensuring compliance with cloud file sharing services such as Microsoft® OneDrive®. Rather than using solutions separately and in isolation, Trend Micro‘s XGen™ security offers a set of cross-generational threat defense techniques, as well as an interconnected defense that effectively protects against undetected threats and other suspicious behavior. The idea is to use the right technique at the right time to optimize the detection rate while minimizing the impact on production. “If an unknown malware enters the network, the Trend Micro solution will isolate it, submit it to the sandbox and enrich the patterns before the editor is even informed. We gain a higher level of security here and it‘s very reassuring,” says Rouillere.
The administration console, Trend Micro Apex Central™, offers a single view PSB’s IT infrastructure (servers, workstations, networks, and mobile devices) and facilitates the operation of solutions to allow the group to focus on its job. “We previously had various security solutions all over the world, but very little time to verify them properly. Today, the 360-degree vision from which we benefit offers us much more anticipation in terms of risks. This saves operating time, while providing additional services ”, says Rouillere.
PSB Industries is also in the process of implementing Trend Micro solutions to secure its industrial equipment. “The level of awareness offered by market players in terms of industrial security is quite poor. The risks of tomorrow are also in this world, it is essential to prepare well”, says Rouillere. The incompatibility, absence of malware protection at industrial level, as well as the difficulty in applying best practices for traditional computing often leads to poor IIoT protection. Trend Micro portable security keys analyze, detect, and remove malware, strengthening the protection of the industrial PC fleet.
"If an unknown malware enters the network, the Trend Micro solution will isolate it, submit it to the sandbox and enrich the patterns before the editor is even informed. We gain a higher level of security here and it’s very reassuring."
Jean-Pierre Rouillere
IT Director Network Infrastructure
and Group, PSB Industries
RESULTS
One of the benefits PSB found while partnering with Trend Micro comes from the personalized support the group receives. “The quality of service from Trend Micro has been exemplary, we have real experts at our side, attentive and very committed to the security of our group“, says Rouillere. For the installation of the solutions, the transfer of skills, and training of the teams, PSB Industries was accompanied, from the advice of Trend Micro, by the Axicom Security, which provided PSB with highly qualified technical support without slowing down day-to-day operations.
By employing a user-based licensing model, PSB Industries was able to reduce the scope of attacks and focus on security events, thereby optimizing continuous defense processes. “In the digital world and particularly in our industry, it is important to reassure our customers about the security levels implemented. With Trend Micro, we have the means to properly supervise our systems, protect our data, and secure our entire infrastructure everywhere in the world. Today we are calm and ready for future threats in order to always serve better our customers.”, concludes Rouillere.
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Embark on a culinary journey through the ever-evolving world of digital leadership with our third edition of the CIONET Cookbook: Recipes for Digital Success. Unveiling the intricate trilemma faced by today’s Master Chefs, our trailblazing European CIOs address a challenge at the nexus of customer interests, digital transformation strategies, and IT modernisation. Their secret? Synchronising the gearing between customer, business, and technology to create a frictionless movement through the digital landscape.
The CIONET Cookbook uses the analogy of a five-star restaurant to explain the importance of optimally integrated technology, with the CIO as Master Chef. In order to provide the best service to its customers, a top restaurant must have the right atmosphere, an inviting menu, a well-equipped kitchen, talented and committed front-of-house and kitchen staff and smooth-running processes that ensure an enjoyable experience for diners.
The role of the CIO has evolved from managing systems to shaping outcomes: growth, resilience, and competitive edge are now won or lost in the technology arena. Today ’ s CIOs must balance stability with innovation, control costs while attracting scarce talent, and modernise legacy infrastructure while adopting emerging technologies.
As AI transitions from a specialised tool to an all-pervasive force, understanding its profound implications for our human lives is no longer merely academic but an urgent imperative for social well-being and strategic preparedness.
Geopolitical tensions have dominated the headlines for over two years now. In this context, the cyber threat landscape is also evolving rapidly. The protection and security of critical infrastructure – both physical and digital – is becoming increasingly important.
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Head of IT Germany and Regional Office Lead Munich, Microsoft
IT Director, IT Thinker
Vice president IT & Compliance, VisionaryRCM (A Carlyle Grp Company)
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