Jens Wonneberger
CISO
Mann+Hummel
As CISO, Jens Wonneberger is responsible for information security and data protection at MANN+HUMMEL. He is the proud father of two children and lives in Southern Germany.
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Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
After twelve years of military service with the rank of captain, I held various positions in the automotive and banking industries and am now responsible as the CISO at MANN+HUMMEL.
In addition to this professional experience, I acquired my theoretical knowledge in two master's degrees (Master of Computer Aided Engineering and Master of IT Governance, Risk and Compliance Management). Through certificate courses such as ISO 27k1 Auditor, Data Protection Officer, ITIL Expert, CISM and CISSP, I have learned to adopt a comprehensive perspective and to understand and apply the individual frameworks.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
Honesty. This is the basis for trusting cooperation in order to win together. On this basis, a mature feedback system and clearly communicated tasks can be used to achieve common goals and highlight the achievements of each individual.
With disruption being a key theme of recent years, where do you see the CISO role going in the next 1-2 years?
The issue of resilience is becoming increasingly important. For years, the CISO has been one of the most important risk managers in the group. Now the role is expanding into business continuity management. It's not about understanding all the business processes. It's about advising the business on how to overcome the shock of an IT system failure and how to bridge that time with alternative processes. This is another mediation role between IT and the business for the security goal of availability.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out as a CISO?
Quickly build a network of trusted professionals who can inspire you, answer your questions, and make you reflect. Without thinking outside the box of our own organisation, we are lost in our role.
Tell us a few fun facts about yourself.
- The only thing I miss about Officer Candidate Training is my six-pack.
- When I received a scholarship for language training, I used it to go to the Caribbean and Hawaii.
- I was once able to eavesdrop on a private conversation between Helmut Schmidt, Henry Kissinger, and Egon Bahr, and instead of talking about world politics, they talked about back pain and how their wives were doing. That got me thinking :)
What is the value of joining an Evanta community?
Evanta opens up a multitude of contacts in the industry to like-minded people who are all dealing with the same issues as me. With these professionals, I can share my own strategies and initiatives and be inspired by theirs.
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