The Technology Illusion Revisited: Expert Perspectives on the Myth of Digital Transformation

Patrick Naef is a partner at ACENT AG and the founder and CEO of ITvisor GmbH, a boutique consulting firm specialised on advising organisations on their digitalisation journey. He is also a managing partner at Boyden Global Executive Search and a member of the board of directors at the Franke Group, a global industrial company headquartered in Switzerland. He is chairman of the board of directors at UpGreat AG and senior advisor in the Travel & Transportation practice of McKinsey & Co.
He also advises and supports several technology start-ups, serves on advisory boards of venture capital firms, lectures on digital transformation and business models in the digital age at universities in Europe and the United States, and is a mentor at the Center for Technology Management at Columbia University, New York (USA) and at the Center for Technology Management and Digital Leadership at Northeastern University, Boston (USA).
From 2006 to 2018, Patrick Naef was the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Emirates Airline & Group in Dubai. During this time, he was also a member of the board of directors at SITA, a global telecommunications and IT services company focusing on the aviation industry. From 2006 to 2014, he was CEO of Mercator, an Emirates Group subsidiary that provides IT products and services to airlines around the world. In the late 1990s, he was a founding member and CTO of the start-up Beyoo, the first European online travel portal. He previously served as CIO of Swissair and SIG Group and held senior positions at HP, Zurich Insurance Group, and Bank Julius Bär.
In 2011, he was recognised with the prestigious CIO of the Decade award by Germany's CIO Magazin and IDG Inc. He holds a master's degree in computer science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), Switzerland and an executive MBA from the University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland.