Visit our photo albums and relive the highlights of the Global Cyber Conference 2025.
The 2025 edition of the Global Cyber Conference organzied by Swiss Cyber Institute began long before the official program started. On 17 September 2025, the Pre-Conference Networking Event at Baur au Lac brought together speakers, partners, attendees and professional media for an evening of conversation and connection. This new tradition has quickly become an essential part of the experience. It gives participants the chance to meet in person, exchange ideas and set the collaborative tone that defines the conference days in Zurich.
On 21 October 2025, Zurich welcomed guests once again for the Dinner with Speakers at the Mandarin Oriental Savoy. More than 50 attendees travelled anywhere from 20 minutes to 20 hours to take part in this warm and focused evening. The dinner marked the official start of the Global Cyber Conference 2025 and prepared the ground for two days of high-level exchange at The Dolder Grand.
Day 1: Where global leaders met to redefine resilience
On 22 October 2025, The Dolder Grand opened its doors to more than 320 CISOs, senior cybersecurity and AI executives, academics and technology providers. After registration, participants joined the Networking Breakfast, the first of many opportunities to connect in a unique conference format that balanced 50% networking and 50% learning sessions.
At 10:30, the Gallery Hall filled with participants as Samir Aliyev, Founder and CEO of the Swiss Cyber Institute, welcomed the audience and introduced the conference theme: Future Resilience. He invited the participants to see the two days ahead as a journey, from understanding the growing complexity of global risks to developing practical strategies that strengthen organizations and societies.
Setting the stage: Opening keynotes
The morning opened with a powerful series of keynotes that addressed resilience from different angles.
Simon Müller, Chief of Cyber Command at the Swiss Armed Forces, gave insights into how the Swiss Army prepares for the realities of cyber warfare. He outlined how the Armed Forces are investing in mission-critical ICT, incident management and cyber operations to protect both military and civil infrastructure.
Silvan Schellenberg, CISO Switzerland at UBS AG, followed with a focus on collaboration. He spoke about how cross-sector partnerships, technology innovation and strong talent development are essential to secure Switzerland’s digital future.
Tim Brown, CISO at SolarWinds, shared a direct look into what keeps security leaders alert at night. He named supply-chain compromises, AI-driven threats and fast-evolving attack patterns as the key challenges that define modern cybersecurity leadership.
Frank Fischer, Group CISO at DHL Group, challenged the audience to reflect on whether their resilience plans are ready for real crises. His “Reality Check” keynote compared theory and practice, pointing out where organizations often overestimate their preparedness.
Roman Haltinner, Cybersecurity Competency Leader at EY Switzerland, concluded the keynote block with an overview of supply-chain risks in turbulent times. He highlighted how complex business relationships, OT systems and IoT devices expand the threat surface and require consistent governance.
From frameworks to reality: Panel discussions
Two panels followed, turning the morning insights into practical discussion.
In “Resilience by Design – CISO Perspectives”, Christine Fahlberg (Swisscard AECS) and Marcos Marrero (H.I.G. Capital Management) joined Samir Aliyev to explore how resilience is built through governance, culture and architecture choices that reduce fragility during stress.
The second panel, “Third-Party and Supply-Chain Risk Governance – Lessons from Recent Mega-Breaches”, brought together Frank Fischer (DHL Group), Filip Nowak (Ferrero), Marcel Zumbühl (Swiss Post) and Tim Brown (SolarWinds) under the moderation of Brett Conlon (American Century Investments). The speakers analysed the governance failures that allowed major breaches to spread across industries and shared strategies for assessing third-party risks and building trust at scale.
Afternoon: AI, governance and the evolving face of resilience
After the networking lunch, the focus shifted to the future of cybersecurity in the age of artificial intelligence. The afternoon program combined strategic discussions, practical roundtables and thought-provoking conversations that explored how technology, business models and talent development are changing under new digital realities.
At 14:00, Axel Fehrmann, Group CISO at Emil Frey Group, opened with the keynote “AI-Driven Malware and Adaptive Threats.” He demonstrated how AI now shapes both the offensive and defensive sides of cybersecurity, adapting faster than traditional detection systems can react.
The following panel discussion “AI Threat Intelligence – Hype or Reality” brought together experts from academia and industry, including Katerina Mitrokotsa (University of St. Gallen), Axel Fehrmann (Emil Freiy Group), Yassine Ilmi (Thomson Reuters) and moderator Robert Kang (Loyola Law School & USC School of Engineering). They debated whether AI-powered intelligence is a reliable tool or a still maturing promise. The exchange revealed both the potential and the limits of automation in a world where human oversight remains essential.
At 14:45, Andy Schneider, Chief Security Officer EMEA Central at Palo Alto Networks, took the stage with his keynote “Future AI Security Playbook.” He described why traditional defense models no longer keep up with machine-speed attacks and called for a data-centric, AI-driven architecture that can respond within minutes instead of days.
The panel “Emerging Cybersecurity Business Models” followed, featuring Daniel Risch, former Prime Minister of Liechtenstein, Marc Furrer, Chairman of the Board at SALT AG, and Marcos Marrero, CISO at H.I.G. Capital Management, moderated by Samir Aliyev. They discussed how cybersecurity is becoming a business in itself, from cyber-insurance and resilience-as-a-service to public–private alliances that strengthen national and corporate readiness.
A highlight of the day was the Exclusive Fireside Chat with Professor Dr. Jürgen Stock, former Secretary General of INTERPOL, moderated by Yanya Viskovich, Strategic Advisor. Their conversation connected cybercrime, AI acceleration and geopolitical instability, showing how organized crime is evolving in the digital age. The audience gained a rare view into global coordination efforts and practical lessons from decades of law enforcement at the highest level.
Deep-dive roundtables: From cloud security to cyber mindsets
Parallel to the main stage, the roundtable sessions were filled to capacity. Each room offered a focused, hands-on discussion led by experts from Switzerland and abroad.
Participants explored cloud security in a shifting geopolitical landscape with Goce Mitovski and Sebastian Schaner from EY Switzerland. Others discussed prompt engineering and AI hallucinations with Ayaz Karimov from the Swiss Cyber Institute or debated trust in the digital era with Christoph Schuhwerk, CISO in Residence at Zscaler.
In the second round, Hanspeter Karl from Pentera guided a session on making security measurable, while Johny Gasser from Orange Business explored how to translate risk metrics into action. Petr Lavrov, Lecturer at the Swiss Cyber Institute, presented Top 7 LLM Tools for CEOs, demonstrating how leaders can use AI responsibly and efficiently.
After the coffee break, discussions continued with Andy Schneider on architecting secure AI ecosystems, Samir Aliyev leading a roundtable on building AI-ready security talent, and Florian Badertscher (Bug Bounty Switzerland) with Michael Ruppe (Adnovum) examining security testing in the age of AI.
The final round of the day included Dominic Haussmann from Cloudflare discussing AI and data privacy, Leith Ben Mansour from WIZ turning cybersecurity into a boardroom conversation, and Jad Abdulsalam with Ream Alomari from Ma’aden highlighting how to create lasting behavioral change in cyber awareness.
Gala Dinner and the Swiss CISO Awards
After a full day of exchange, learning and debate, participants gathered for a relaxed networking aperitif that smoothly transitioned into the Gala Dinner and Swiss CISO Awards Ceremony.
The atmosphere at The Dolder Grand shifted from analytical to celebratory. Over dinner, the community honored five outstanding professionals whose work represents excellence, vision and leadership in cybersecurity. The ceremony, co-hosted by Samir Aliyev and Anastasiia Vollmar, brought the audience together in recognition of individuals who advance security not only through technology but also through people, trust and collaboration.
Read the official press release to learn the winners of the Swiss CISO Awards 2025: https://globalcyberconference.com/press-release-swiss-ciso-awards-2025-winners/
The first day of the Global Cyber Conference 2025 closed with inspiring conversations, new partnerships and a clear message: future resilience is not built alone but through continuous dialogue between experts, sectors and nations.
Day 2: From accountability to action
The second day of the Global Cyber Conference 2025 began once again with a networking breakfast overlooking Zurich’s skyline. Conversations started early, as participants reconnected with new contacts from Day 1 and continued discussions sparked the day before. By 10:30, the conference halls filled again with anticipation for another series of keynotes, panels and roundtables focused on accountability, collaboration and the future of secure digital transformation.
Opening keynote: A role model for cyber resilience
The morning opened with August Benz, President of the Swiss Financial Sector Cyber Security Centre (FS-CSC), who shared how the Swiss financial industry has become a model for other sectors in building cyber resilience. He described how collaboration through public-private partnerships and shared intelligence networks raised the industry’s overall preparedness and demonstrated the strength of collective defense.
The discussion then shifted to cloud transformation, where experts including Brett Conlon (American Century Investments), Georgios Giannokostas (Asendia) and Ruud Verbij (Rituals), moderated by Jacqueline Rajuai (Google), examined what effective oversight truly means. They agreed that success in the cloud depends on clarity, not assumption: well-defined contracts, measurable risk indicators and concrete exit strategies are now essential parts of any mature governance model.
From there, Gunay Kazimzade, AI Governance Advisor at Siemens Energy, reminded the audience that accountability remains human even in an age of machine intelligence. Her talk explored how organizations can preserve responsibility, transparency and trust as they deploy AI at scale, ensuring that automation never replaces ethical oversight.
Ethical questions continued on stage when Kaiti Huang (Inter IKEA Group), Michal Cichoki (Zürcher Kantonalbank) and Raffaele Giove (Dassault Systèmes) joined Robert Kang for a discussion on the role of AI in cyber defense. The panel examined the dilemmas around bias, privacy, and unintended consequences, concluding that ethical frameworks must evolve as fast as technology itself.
The final main-stage conversation before lunch brought the focus to critical infrastructure and the convergence of IT and OT systems. Filip Nowak (Ferrero), René Gehlen (City of Zurich) and Rob ter Linden (Signify), moderated by Jacqueline Rajuai, explained how digital and physical systems are becoming inseparable in energy, logistics and manufacturing. The session underlined that protecting critical infrastructure now directly translates into protecting public safety.
Deep-dive roundtables: Leadership, AI and resilience
While the keynotes and panels took place in the main hall, smaller rooms hosted another series of highly interactive roundtables.
The first sessions brought together Professor Guido Salvaneschi from the University of St. Gallen, who discussed Security of AI Agents and the MCP Protocol, and Cristian Dumitrescu, Partner Cybersecurity and Managed Services at EY Switzerland, who led a debate on cutting costs without cutting corners in managed security services. Both sessions focused on practical implementation and future readiness.
Later in the morning, Maya Bundt, multiple board member and cyber governance expert, explored how to bridge the reporting gap between boards and executive leadership, while Anthony Scarfe from Elastic led a discussion on organizational readiness for the next cyberattack.
Participants shared lessons from their own industries and agreed that preparedness depends not only on tools but on communication and leadership alignment.
Afternoon: Governance, talent and the road ahead
After the networking lunch, conversations continued with renewed focus as participants gathered again for the final series of keynotes, panels and roundtables.
The afternoon began with a fireside chat between Laylo Merali from the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) and Orhan Osmani, Head of the Cybersecurity Division at the International Telecommunication Union, moderated by Samir Aliyev. Their exchange explored how cybersecurity governance must evolve beyond compliance toward genuine resilience and global interoperability. Drawing from international experience, they emphasized that the future depends on flexible frameworks, cross-border cooperation and consistent alignment with global standards.
The discussion on governance was followed by a session dedicated to the people behind cybersecurity. George Zarkadakis (Syndesis Health), Leandro Machado Coelho (ETH Zurich / CSCS) and Roland Mathys (Schellenberg Wittmer), moderated by Ayan Islam, addressed the challenge of building the cybersecurity workforce of the future. They highlighted the growing need for multidisciplinary talent that understands not only technology but also ethics, law and organizational behavior. The panel agreed that resilience starts with education and inclusion, supported by leadership that values diverse skills and continuous learning.
Attention then turned to the next major transformation on the horizon. Pascal Reiniger, CISO at Kanton Basel-Landschaft, explained how the coming era of quantum computing could render today’s encryption standards obsolete. His keynote underlined the urgency of preparing migration plans for post-quantum cryptography, comparing the challenge to Y2K but with even higher complexity and uncertainty.
The final technical keynote, presented by Professor Katerina Mitrokotsa, Chair of Cybersecurity at the University of St. Gallen, focused on the future of cloud security. She showed how advances in cryptography, such as secure multi-party computation and privacy-preserving aggregation, enable confidential AI and compliance with tightening data protection regulations. Her message was clear: privacy, security and innovation must evolve together.
To close the main stage, Brett Conlon, Tim Brown, Guido Salvaneschi and Silvan Schellenberg joined an open “Ask Me Anything” panel on how to measure cyber resilience. Participants discussed the value of practical metrics such as detection speed, recovery time and user awareness, while warning against vanity indicators that fail to show real progress. The session encouraged attendees to treat measurement as a management tool, not a compliance checklist.
Meanwhile, the roundtable rooms remained full until the very end of the conference. Joshua Buchli from cyberunity AG led a creative session on skills and talent titled “From Stillsuits to Skillsuits”, linking science-fiction inspiration to real-world competence development. Robert Kang from Loyola Law School guided a conversation on deepfake-enabled fraud, focusing on prevention tactics for executive impersonation. Later, Michael Sjøberg, hostage negotiator and founder of Delta Crisis Management, ran a realistic ransomware response simulation that tested decision-making under pressure. In the neighboring room, Angelo Mathis and Raphael Jakob from the Information Security Society Switzerland (ISSS) shared concrete lessons on how AI is being applied in real-world security operations.
By late afternoon, the atmosphere was both reflective and energized. Over two days, the Global Cyber Conference 2025 had brought together leaders from across industries and continents to exchange ideas, challenge assumptions and build professional trust.
What connected every discussion was a shared recognition that resilience is built in collaboration, not isolation.
Closing reflections
As the final applause echoed through the Gallery Hall of The Dolder Grand, one message resonated above all: resilience is no longer a goal for tomorrow but a responsibility of today.
With over 320 participants from around the world, the 2025 edition once again proved that the Global Cyber Conference is not only a platform for knowledge but a catalyst for collaboration. Across 60 sessions, the event connected the dots between governance, education, innovation and leadership showing how the cybersecurity community can move from awareness to action.
The dialogue does not end here. Preparations for Global Cyber Conference 2026 are already underway, promising new perspectives, formats and collaborations.
Stay tuned for updates and be part of the next chapter.
