Almost six months into my role as Director-General Designate, I’m happy to say that my nominations for the upcoming senior leadership team were approved at the June session of the CERN Council. I’d like to thank the CERN Council, as well as the current management team, for their continued support as I build the CERN leadership team for 2026–2030. I want to take this opportunity not only to announce the names of the new senior leadership team but also to outline the next steps in establishing the wider CERN leadership team.

CERN Directors for 2026–2030

I’m happy to announce the following Council appointments:

• Director for Accelerators and Technology: Oliver Brüning
  Currently leader of the High-Luminosity LHC project, Oliver will lead the Accelerators and Technology sector (ATS) as CERN enters the upcoming long shutdown, LS3. Oliver and I agree that the risk of introducing delays during LS3 due to disruption from major restructuring outweighs potential gains. Thus, the four departments remain: Beams (BE), Engineering (EN), Accelerator Systems (SY) and Technology (TE).
   
• Director for Research and Computing: Gautier Hamel de Monchenault
  Gautier is currently spokesperson of the CMS experiment and will lead the Research and Computing sector (RCS), which will continue to consist of three departments of Experimental Physics (EP), Information Technology (IT) and Theoretical Physics (TH).
   
• Director for Stakeholder Relations: Ursula Bassler
  Former President of CERN Council from 2019 to 2021, Ursula comes back to CERN to lead the new Stakeholder Relations sector (SRS), which is an evolution of the current International Relations sector. For administrative efficiency, the sector will be composed of groups rather than departments, with activities aligned with the Organization’s goals.
   
• Director for Finance and Human Resources: Jan-Paul Brouwer
  Jan-Paul joins CERN with a wealth of experience of HR and finance in international and academic organisations. The Finance and Human Resources (FHR) sector retains three departments: Finance and Administrative Processes (FAP), Human Resources (HR) and Industry, Procurement and Knowledge Transfer (IPT).
   
• Director for Site Operations: Mar Capeans
  Mar transitions from Site and Civil Engineering Department Head to lead this new sector, in a role that is similar to that of a traditional Chief Operating Officer (COO). Site Operations (SO) will include three departments, Site and Civil Engineering (SCE) and a new Operational Excellence (OE) department (exact name to be confirmed) that brings together cross-organisational activities, such as Business Continuity, organisation-wide Continuous Improvement, Corporate Risk and Crisis Management. The Site Operations sector will also host the Health, Safety and Environmental Protection (HSE) department (formerly a unit). The HSE Department Head will continue to report directly to the Director General.

In the June Council paper, I also announced the selection of the new Chief Information Officer (CIO) role, who will join the Directors and me as part of the senior leadership team.  

• Chief Information Officer (CIO): Enrica Porcari
  Enrica moves from Information Technology Department Head to this new non-departmental role, responsible for steering the Organization’s information technology strategy, governance and policy. This will encompass areas such as cybersecurity, data privacy and cross-organisational initiatives such as artificial intelligence (AI) and relevant external partnerships.  

I would like to warmly congratulate the new senior leadership team members, and I look forward to working together with them in the coming months and years ahead. 

Next step: Department Head nominations

Looking ahead, one of the first tasks for the senior leadership team will be to collectively agree on nominations for department heads, with the intention that I take the selected names to the September CERN Council meeting for appointment by the Council.

In some cases, existing department heads will remain, in others, there may be ideas around succession planning, whereas in other departments the options may be more open. Regardless, in all cases, in the interest of increasing the transparency of the department head selection process, and in part responding to the 2023 CERN staff survey, I would like to provide the opportunity for CERN staff members to be able to express their interest in the department head roles. For me, this is an occasion for colleagues to be able to “raise their hand”, and it allows the senior leadership team to be aware of a wider range of options. For more details on department head nominations and how to express interest, see here.

Once department heads are appointed in September, I expect the selection of group leaders to follow a similar process. Again, I want to empower the wider senior management team to collectively review potential candidates across all sectors, to ensure that we have a balanced and cohesive leadership team. More information will be shared in September.