Bram Van Altena
Director & CISO
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
As of September 2021, Bram van Altena is the Chief Information Security Officer of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Together with Air France – the KLM CISO team is responsible for compliance and information assurance, communication and awareness, and cyber threat hunting, to ensure that the IT for the enterprise is adequately protected and to reduce the (IT) risk.
Learn more about leaders in the Benelux CISO community here.
Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
After completing my schooling, I started my career in IT where I have learned many aspects of information technology. I started at KLM 23 years ago, and during that time I held various management positions in different technical IT areas. Security was always a common thread in my functions.
What are your guiding leadership principles?
- Being a good listener.
- Do what you promise.
- Learn something new everyday.
- Give feedback and be open to receive feedback.
With disruption being a key theme of the past few years, where do you see your role as a CISO going in the next 1-2 years?
The current role is mainly seen as an IT function, but this needs to shift towards a combination of business and IT. This also means gaining more knowledge of the business processes and combining them with the IT processes.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the role as a CISO?
Start understanding the business and IT processes, and find your key stakeholders. Introduce yourself to the different teams and listen to what is ongoing from their perspective. Become easily accessible for all levels in the company.
Tell us 3 fun facts about yourself.
- I enjoy riding my (fast) motorbike.
- After many years of traveling by airplane and seeing most parts of the world, my wife and I are happy campers traveling in Europe.
- I have my own cross-trainer at home and try to sport twice a week, even if it is not my hobby.
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