5 CISOs Secure Germany’s Chemical Sector Against Cyber Threats

Germany’s massive chemical sector relies on five distinct CISOs to secure complex supply chains, formulas, and plants against industrial espionage. Drawn from telecommunications, consulting, SAP security, and ethical hacking, these leaders bring contrasting professional backgrounds to protecting polymer makers, adhesive producers, and specialty chemical manufacturers.

Germany’s chemical industry ranks among the largest worldwide, making its physical plants, proprietary formulas, and intricate supply chains prime targets for cyber criminals and industrial espionage, according to reporting from CISO Whisperer. To counter these threats, firms across the sector have enlisted security leaders whose professional roots span vastly different corners of the tech and corporate worlds.

Markus Schmall and Timo Kukuk at Covestro and LANXESS

At Covestro, CISO Dr. Markus Schmall draws on a deeply technical background in telecommunications and offensive security. Before taking the CISO role in October 2020 after serving as CISO of Deutsche Börse, Schmall spent nearly a decade as vice president of application security and security testing at Deutsche Telekom. During his tenure there, he ran the company’s honeypot-based early warning project—which involved developing proprietary honeypots alongside the public Sicherheitstacho dashboard—led its bug bounty team, managed five IT security and penetration testing teams, and ran red teaming operations.

Corporate headquarters of covestro ag in leverkusen at the chempark nrw germany

Over at LANXESS, CISO Timo Kukuk took the helm in August 2021 following a career rooted in consulting and risk management. Prior to a six-and-a-half-year tenure in KPMG Germany’s security consulting practice—where he managed operations and directed ISO 27001 certification services at KPMG Cert—Kukuk held a brief stint as CIO of Danmy International in Shanghai. He later transitioned to ista International as corporate information security manager and head of corporate digital risk management.

Jesse Sonne, Stephan Sachs, and Julian Nikolai Across Adhesives and Materials

Symrise CISO Jesse Sonne entered the field via unconventional avenues for IT security, initially handling controlling tasks for BSH Home Appliances Group in Berlin as well as internal process analysis and corporate quality at Porsche. Following three and a half years in IT risk management and compliance at KPMG in Bielefeld, Sonne joined Symrise—a manufacturer of fragrance, flavor, and cosmetic ingredients—in 2018 as IT compliance and security manager. He stepped into the global information security officer role in 2021 before becoming CISO in 2022.

At specialty adhesives maker DELO, CISO Stephan Sachs brings nearly two decades of SAP experience. After writing his diploma thesis at BMW on restructuring IT for central parts delivery and working as a junior SAP consultant at TRIA IT-Consulting, Sachs spent 18 years at Linde. There, he moved from SAP application architect and local security officer to head of SAP security and licensing, subsequently heading application and technical security where he managed global teams exceeding 25 people across identity management and SAP access control. Following a stint at Siltronic as senior licensing manager and CISO in 2022, Sachs assumed his current post at DELO in July 2024.

Meanwhile, Freudenberg Group VP of Information & Cybersecurity and Group CISO Julian Nikolai pursued an entrepreneurial and ethical hacking path. His background includes co-founding a web services venture while at TU Darmstadt, working at usd AG as an IT security consultant specializing in secure software development and ethical hacking, and functioning as an associate within BCG’s cybersecurity practice. Joining Freudenberg Group in 2018 as a cyber security architect, he built and led a global cyber defense team at Freudenberg Sealing Technologies, where he restructured the information security management system and secured its first TISAX certification within his first year. Nikolai assumed his group-wide vice presidency in December 2024 with a goal of making life as hard as possible for cyber criminals, according to the original post.

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