Chema Alonso

Description

Chema Alonso is member of Telefonica S.A. Executive Committee from 2016 and he is currently Chief Digital Officer. In this role, he oversees Innovation, Data, Platforms, and Digital Product & Services, leading the strategy for the digitalisation of sales processes and customer communication channels of the company.

As head of this Global Unit, he also aims to promote innovation of new digital products and services as well as the generation of internal efficiency supported by the technological capacities of big data and artificial intelligence of Telefónica’s fourth platform, with special focus on the digital home. With a long background in the area of innovation, he is also responsible for the innovation of Telefónica’s core technologies as well as the company’s relationship with the entrepreneurial ecosystem under an open cooperation model.

He holds a PhD in Computer Security from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Technical Engineering degree in Computer Systems from Universidad Politécnica Madrid. The latter institution named him Honorary Ambassador of the University School of Information Technology in 2012. Cross of the National military Police Merit with white distinction. Awarded during 14 years as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP).Chema Alonso is currently the CDO - Chief Data Officer - at Telefónica. In this position he heads the company’s Big Data strategy, Advertising and the Fourth Platform. As part of the work to define the Fourth Platform, he also leads the Personal Data Bank team and is the main internal promoter of the Data Transparency Lab. He is also responsible for global cybersecurity and data security, having created the new Global Security Unit with the Information Security Global Business in B2B & B2C and Eleven Paths.

He was previously the founder and CEO of Eleven Paths, a subsidiary of Telefónica Digital focusing on innovation in security products, and General Manager of Global Security Business in the B2B unit of Telefónica Business Solutions. Before joining Telefónica in 2013, he spent 14 years working for and directing Informática 64, a company focusing on computer security and training. He obtained doctorates in Computer Security at the King Juan Carlos University of Madrid, Computer Engineering at the same university and IT Systems Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, an institution which appointed him Honorary Ambassador of the University School of Computer Science in 2012. Since 2009 he has also directed the Master’s Degree in Information Security at the European University of Madrid.

He is the author of several books and other works specializing in cybersecurity and a director representing Telefónica at Alise Devices, a company supported by Telefónica by means of its Wayra startups acceleration programme and a developer of anti-counterfeiting technology, chiefly made up of engineers from the Polytechnic University of Madrid.