André Meyer is tasked with architecting and executing the group’s overarching IT strategy. This extensive mandate includes identifying and enabling synergies across all entities, enhancing interoperability where possible, ensuring a robust and future-proof security posture, and guiding the strategic adoption of Artificial Intelligence group-wide, all while supporting the critical energy transition. The agenda is packed with significant challenges. For him, a key motivation is the opportunity to contribute to the group’s evolving maturity and capabilities, with the aim of making a tangible, positive difference for every household in Luxembourg.

What does this CIO of the Year award mean to you ?

Receiving the CIO of the Year award is, first and foremost, a significant honour, particularly as it is bestowed by peers, fellow CIOs and past recipients, all of whom are deeply experienced professionals. Within the Luxembourg market,
where the ICT leadership community is closely connected and has a clear understanding of the real-world projects and challenges we all navigate, this recognition is especially meaningful.

While I am incredibly proud of what our teams are accomplishing at Encevo, I also view this award as a reflection of a broader journey and the cumulative impact of work undertaken throughout my career, including my previous leadership roles. It truly underscores the efforts of many talented individuals and teams I’ve had the privilege to work with and lead over the years.
Ultimately, this award serves as a powerful affirmation of the strategic direction we are pursuing at Encevo. It reinforces our collective commitment to the transformation underway and energises us to continue enhancing our capabilities for the benefit of the group and, as we’ve discussed, every household as well as our many SME and B2B customers that we serve.

How long have you held the position of Group CIO at Encevo ?

I embarked on this role as Group CIO for Encevo in late September 2023, so I’m approaching the two-year mark. Prior to joining Encevo, I served as CIO for a major German corporation. A significant part of my work there involved spearheading the complex merger of seven distinct companies, uniting a workforce of 12,800 people. In that capacity, my responsibilities extended beyond a traditional CIO role, as I also assumed the duties of an interim Chief Operating Officer. This dual perspective required deep engagement with all facets of the business, from HR and logistics to operational processes and communications.
That comprehensive experience has been invaluable in my current position. When I joined Encevo, one of my immediate priorities was to thoroughly understand the existing landscape across our entities.
The first step was to meticulously map out current resources and deployments. This foundational work was crucial for identifying key opportunities where we could drive efficiency and foster greater synergy across the group, laying the groundwork for the group IT strategy we are now implementing.

What are the primar y challen ges you face in this strate gic IT trans formation ?

One of the most significant challenges is ensuring that IT is not just a supporting function, but a deeply integrated component of our product development and service delivery. Our group, Encevo, comprises diverse entities, each with its own history and specific operational needs. This inherent heterogeneity, while a strength in many ways, can lead to fragmented customer and employee experiences if not managed strategically.
Therefore, a central part of my mission, as we discussed earlier regarding architecting the group’s IT strategy, is to drive towards a more seamless experience for both our customers and our employees, as effectively as possible across this challenging landscape. The challenge lies in harmonizing these diverse elements under a common strategic framework that enables such integration efficiently and securely.

Within Encevo , there ’s a Group CIO and other CIOs, for instan ce at Enovos and Creos . How do you position yoursel f in relation to them ?

That’s a key aspect of our operational structure. Encevo Group operates with an IT model that is designed to be both integrated and decentralized. Each of our major entities, like Enovos and Creos, has its own dedicated CIO, while our smaller entities have designated IT leads. This structure is intentional: it allows us to cultivate a unified, group-wide IT strategy and ensure alignment, while simultaneously empowering our entities with the autonomy to respond agilely to their specific market demands and varied operational contexts.
Historically, one of our main entities has also been acting as an internal IT service provider for important parts of the group. While this brings certain economies of scale, it also can introduce complexities, particularly in ensuring optimal flexibility and interoperability for entities operating in distinct market segments with diverse agility requirements.

As part of the new group IT strategy I’m leading, we’ve been carefully evaluating and are now actively reshaping how our internal IT services are structured. The objective is to maximize their effective utilization across all entities, drive greater synergies, and simplify interactions.
This is always done with rigorous attention to cost-effectiveness and without compromising our security posture, a delicate but critical balance.
To support and accelerate this evolution, I’ve recently established three new group-level departments, which function as centers of excellence. These are specifically designed to optimize resource use and further enhance our integrated-yet-decentralized model, ensuring we achieve both efficiency and responsiveness across the Encevo Group.

What are the functions of these new departments ?

These three new group-level departments, or centers of excellence, have been strategically designed to address critical cross-functional priorities for Encevo:
First, we’ve established a dedicated Business Continuity Management (BCM) function. This is a crucial transversal area that extends beyond IT, ensuring the resilience of our core operations across the entire group. It’s about safeguarding our ability to deliver, no matter the disruption.

Second, we’ve undertaken a comprehensive overhaul and significant strengthening of our Group Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) function. This was a truly collaborative effort, co-created in close partnership with our Group CISO to ensure it meets our evolving security needs. The department is now structured around a central expert team, which we’ve augmented with four additional full-time specialists. This core team is integrated into a new operational model that directly links the Group CISO function with local security officers embedded within each of our entities, creating a much tighter, more responsive security fabric.

« The transformations we are leading in IT and digital are not just internal improvements; they are designed to enhance our services and operational mat urity for the benefit of all. »

Finally, I am actively building a dedicated group-level team focused on Artificial Intelligence. We already have a vibrant landscape of AI initiatives across our entities, which demonstrates significant innovation at the local level. The purpose of this new central team is to act as a center of excellence to further empower and coordinate these efforts. It will focus on establishing a common, shared baseline for AI governance, ensuring we stay ahead of legal and ethical requirements. Critically, it will also pool expertise and best practices, fostering a collaborative environment to accelerate innovation and effectively harness the transformative potential of this incredibly impactful emerging technology across the Encevo Group. We’re recruiting top talent to drive this forward.

What are the main trans formation levers for the group ? Ultimately, it ’s about guaranteeing the ener gy supply for all of Luxembourg…

Indeed, ensuring a reliable energy supply for Luxembourg is our fundamental purpose. The key transformation lever from an IT perspective is how we support the diverse operational needs across Encevo’s entities to achieve this.
For example, Creos, our network operator, must prioritize the utmost reliability and security of the grid, operating with a necessary degree of independence. Enovos, our energy supplier and producer, thrives in a dynamic market, requiring agility and continuous product innovation. We also have entities focused on emerging technical services like solar and battery installations, which demand flexibility and customer-centric solutions.
The goal is to leverage our collective strengths to deliver the best possible products and services, at the best price, for all our clients. This strategic alignment and enablement across diverse business units is the core of our IT transformation.

How do you manage to ali gn the interests of these different parties ?

Aligning diverse interests in a group like Encevo fundamentally hinges on open dialogue and understanding the varied perspectives across our leadership and operational teams, both in IT and the business units. My approach is to actively listen and engage to grasp everyone’s objectives and needs.
However, true alignment also requires pragmatism. It involves transparently assessing what’s achievable and then integrating these diverse requirements into coherent group-level initiatives, supported by clear governance and optimized resources. This often means facilitating a process to find the best compromise, one that serves the greater good of the Encevo Group, even if it doesn’t perfectly match every individual entities’ wish. The key is to clearly articulate the rationale behind these strategic choices, demonstrating how they contribute to our collective success and benefit our customers. When the ‘why’ is understood, even compromise can be a powerful unifying force.

What is the impact of regulation on your activities ?

Regulation significantly shapes our operations, especially in the critical energy sector across multiple European countries. Directives like NIS2 impose demanding cybersecurity standards, and with over one hundred entities in our group, primarily across Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, and France, navigating diverse national regulations is a constant.

While these compliance requirements are extensive, particularly for smaller entities, being part of Encevo Group provides a crucial advantage. We can leverage shared expertise and resources that would be challenging for standalone companies to access.
Our group IT strategy, therefore, focuses on ensuring rigorous compliance efficiently. We achieve this by creating synergies and economies of scale, transforming complex regulatory demands into a managed, group-wide capability. It’s about balancing robust adherence with operational effectiveness.

How are you addressing the challenges in IT security?

IT security is a foundational priority at Encevo. Recognizing its critical importance, one of my first actions was to partner closely with our Group CISO to co-create and implement a significantly enhanced security and resilience strategy, underpinned by a robust and continuously evolving security roadmap.
This led to the new operational model for our CISO function, which we discussed earlier. With a strengthened central team now working in direct coordination with security leads embedded in our entities, we’ve substantially improved our group-wide security posture and responsiveness. As part of our governance, we are also actively monitoring advancements in AI, both for its potential to enhance our defensive capabilities and to understand the significant emerging
threats it presents. Our IT security governance framework is evolving accordingly to address these AI-specific challenges and opportunities.
This strategic overhaul, coupled with the establishment of our dedicated Business Continuity Management, ensures a more robust and resilient operational environment for the entire group, with clear governance defined at the group level.

Production and consumption patterns are changing rapidly. What are the ke y trends in this area ?

The shift towards decentralized energy production – with more ‘prosumers’ – and the increased demand from electric mobility and heat pumps fundamentally changes energy flows and consumption profiles. From an IT perspective, this creates an urgent need for more sophisticated data management and grid intelligence.The key challenge is to integrate and analyze vast amounts of realtime data from diverse sources – from smart meters to distributed generation assets and storage units. Our IT systems must be capable of providing a precise, dynamic view of energy generation, consumption, and storage across the network.
To address this, we are actively developing our overarching group data strategy. The aim is to ensure that a data-driven, missioncritical approach is feasible across our operations, paving the way for seamlessly integrated products and more intelligent energy management. This strategic focus on data is essential for managing these evolving energy dynamics effectively.

The energy transition is a major societal challenge. How does digital technology support this transformation ?

The energy transition is indeed a pivotal challenge, and digital technology is an indispensable enabler for a group like ours. Luxembourg, I should note, is one of the most advanced countries in Europe regarding the deployment of smart meters. Today, virtually every household is equipped with a communicating meter, continuously transmitting consumption data. This widespread adoption provides a powerful foundation.
This rich, near real-time data has been instrumental. For example, Creos’s KOPR project has leveraged this data to develop a sophisticated digital twin of Luxembourg’s entire electricity grid.

This isn’t just a model; it’s a dynamic tool. With it, the different grid operators in Luxembourg can monitor evolving consumption needs across the country, develop predictive models to anticipate the impact of new projects, like the expansion of the grid or the integration of new renewable energy sources, and optimize grid operations.

Furthermore, this data-driven approach opens the door to predictive maintenance for the grid infrastructure, analyzing patterns to preempt issues. This deep understanding of energy usage allows us to dynamically adapt the network, directly supporting the objectives of the energy transition by enhancing efficiency, reliability, and the capacity to integrate more renewables.

With these evolving trends , how do your products and services need to adapt ?

Product adaptation is indeed essential. Enovos, for example, has launched dynamic pricing, allowing customers to engage actively with fluctuating energy prices based on real-time grid conditions. This requires compatible home technologies for optimal benefit. Simultaneously, we continue to serve customers who prefer stable, fixed-price tariffs, ensuring predictability. Catering to this spectrum of preferences is key.
The ability to do both effectively, and to innovate further, hinges on our strategic approach to data. In this evolving energy landscape, intelligently leveraging data allows us to refine offerings, meet diverse customer needs more precisely, and empower them through the transition. This is a core focus of our group data strategy.

What has been your main challenge in the past two years sin ce this Group CIO role was created ?

My primary challenge upon establishing this Group CIO function was twofold. First, to rapidly understand the diverse operational needs and specific constraints of each entity within our extensive group. I discovered a breadth of business models and realities that required deep immersion, even with my prior consulting experience.
Second, based on that understanding, the challenge was to define and gain collective buy-in for a coherent, overarching group IT strategy that respects individual entity strengths while unlocking group-wide synergies.
Effectively, it was about building a strong internal network and demonstrating with rigorous analysis how the transformations we are leading benefit each entity and, critically, the Encevo Group as a whole, ultimately serving our customers better.

How do you envision the adoption of AI across the group ?

Our approach to AI adoption across Encevo is pragmatic and valuedriven, building on innovation from all corners of the group. As I mentioned, we’re establishing a group-level AI center of excellence to coordinate efforts, provide governance, and pool expertise.
While strategic initiatives like the digital twin are spearheaded by Creos, we also see significant innovation elsewhere. For instance, already almost a year ago, one of our smaller, technical, yet highly innovative, entities began introducing an AI-enabled application aimed at enhancing daily operational efficiency. This application assists our field technicians with mobile-based intervention reporting, they dictate reports in their preferred language, and the AI handles formatting and archiving.

« Effectively, it was about building a strong internal network and demonstrating with rigorous analysis how the transformations we are leading benefit each entity and, critically, the Encevo Group as a whole, ultimately serving our customers better. »

This illustrates our philosophy: deploy AI where it delivers tangible benefits, improves information quality, and empowers our teams. Better data quality, facilitated by AI, will enhance our customer service and market responsiveness. We’re focused on accelerating these deployments through targeted proofs of concept, prioritizing use cases with high potential for group-wide impact.

What particularly enthuses you in your current role ?

What truly motivates me is the tangible impact of the work we’re doing at Encevo. Our group, directly or indirectly, touches every part of society in Luxembourg. There’s a profound sense of purpose in knowing that behind every power outlet, our collective efforts contribute to delivering essential energy.
The transformations we are leading in IT and digital are not just internal improvements; they are designed to enhance our services and operational maturity for the benefit of all. Within the next two to three years, I am confident that the positive effects of these initiatives, the enhanced efficiency, the improved resilience, the smarter energy solutions, will be clearly felt by everyone.
It’s the opportunity to leverage technology to support this critical energy transition and to contribute to a more efficient, resilient, and ultimately better service for every household and business that I find most energizing.