If yesterday we announced the finalists for “Best CIO”, today it is time to do the same with the five candidates for the “Best CISO” award at the Byte TI 2025 Awards, whose presentation gala will be held this coming Thursday, September 24.
The variety of approaches has been the dominant note among the 82 applications received, as reflected by the projects of the five finalists for “Best CISO” and which show the maturity of cybersecurity as a fundamental pillar of business strategies: from governance frameworks for secure and traceable AI or industrial segmentation of factories, to the resilience of critical assets, user-centered security culture and IT/OT convergence in a proactive SOC 3.0.
The jury, made up of members of the editorial team and regular collaborators of Byte TI, has especially valued the impact on the organization, the professional career, the leadership capacity and the degree of innovation of each initiative. The winner will emerge from these five projects, who will be announced and publicly recognized during the gala this Thursday, September 24, which will be a moment to highlight the role of cybersecurity as a fundamental pillar of corporate strategies.
Finalists for Best CISO of the year at the Byte TI Awards 2026
Gabriel Moliné, CISO of Carrefour
For the AI Trust Framework project, a governance model to ensure secure, traceable and scalable adoption of artificial intelligence. The initiative places digital identity as the axis of trust, extending access management to AI agents, automations, APIs, service accounts and other non-human identities. The project has made it possible to inventory, classify and govern thousands of technical identities in Carrefour environments, establishing controls over privileges, credentials, certificates, secrets and automated access. All access by non-human entities is subject to homogeneous traceability policies, continuous monitoring and periodic review.
The framework includes mechanisms to protect the information used by AI models, control access to sensitive data, segregate functions between agents and human users, and detect anomalous behavior. This approach has accelerated the adoption of AI in corporate processes while maintaining high levels of security, compliance and resilience. At the same time, cybersecurity at Carrefour has evolved from a reactive and isolated role to a strategic business partner. A Zero Trust model has been consolidated with segmentation, secure browsing and data leak prevention, along with a professionalized SOC with threat intelligence and automated response. For its part, the GRC Office transcends regulatory compliance to become an audit and continuity engine, using frameworks such as NIS2, DORA and GDPR as vectors of operational excellence.
Carlos Asún, CISO of Food Delivery Brands
For the protection and segmentation project of the Telepizza factory, which started from a flat network where IT and OT coexisted with a single Firewall in the OT part, so that any corporate incident could propagate directly to the production systems and there was minimal control of the manufacturers and suppliers that connected to the OT Network. The project has consisted of redesigning the architecture according to IEC 62443 throughout the factory, IT/OT and Third Party separation through a cluster of industrial firewalls with IDS/IPS, creation of an Industrial DMZ that eliminates direct communication between environments, a redundant fiber OT core and to undertake this level of security, new fibers and cabling have also been deployed throughout the factory. In addition, each production line is microsegmented with its own Firewall and Switches, isolating the PLCs of each production line. The result is a hierarchical network by zones, with controlled and inspected traffic between levels, where an IT incident no longer reaches the plant or vice versa and a problem in a production line does not affect the rest of the lines and third party communications are fully controlled.
Javier Sánchez Salas, CISO of Engie
For being one of the pioneers of cybersecurity in the company. Twenty years protecting different companies, nine of them as CISO and the last four in a large energy multinational like Engie. Its greatest value is to integrate cybersecurity as a strategic business enabler. As head of Digital Infrastructure Cybersecurity at Engie, he has promoted a vision aligned with corporate objectives, promoting effective risk management, strengthening operational resilience and protecting critical assets in IT and OT environments. As notable projects, we can mention those linked to the Resilience of industrial assets through the evaluation of Risks in real environments, promoting the redundancy of Industrial SD-WAN environments and the digital transformation of Industrial environments.
Eva Mosquera Rodríguez, Head of secure user experience strategy at Santander
As head of Secure User Experience at Santander Spain, Eva leads a strategy that places people at the center of cybersecurity. Its mission is to connect business, technology and user experience teams to build a culture of prevention and collaboration that protects the organization and millions of customers. Among its functions, the coordination of transversal initiatives between areas of Cybersecurity (GRC, Architecture, IAM, Cyber Defense, Resilience), Fraud, Transformation, Data, Cards, Marketing, Communication and Corporation stands out. This approach allows us to identify risks and gaps, anticipate challenges derived from technologies such as AI, and convert opportunities into high-impact agile projects, including the steering committee. Among its achievements is the creation of the official WhatsApp channel of Banco Santander Spain, developed at zero cost and dedicated to cybersecurity education and early warning against fraud. After a year, it has more than 54,400 followers. Campaign analysis shows that aware customers are four times less likely to suffer fraud. Internally, the entity occupies a leading position in audits and safety culture within the Group, thanks to a model based on anticipation, continuous improvement and efficient execution. I aspire to continue promoting close, effective and sustainable cybersecurity, where technology, processes and people advance in the same direction.
Javier Galindo, CISO of Moeve
For the SOC 3.0 project: The definitive convergence between IT cybersecurity and OT Moeve is an international energy company present throughout the world that operates throughout the entire energy value chain. A critical infrastructure for the country that requires robust and solid cybersecurity to protect our assets and guarantee the continuity of operations. This, together with the evolution towards a digitalized world and the rise of the Cloud, IoT, Big Data or AI, pose a new challenge for Moeve: evolve towards a more resilient and proactive model, and bring OT cybersecurity to the same level of IT maturity. The objective: turn cybersecurity into a continuous and measurable exercise, incorporate AI to optimize tasks and operational processes and drive continuous improvement. With this new vision of the SOC of the future, we move from reactive defense to proactive resilience.
