Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl

Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl is Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE

Cecilia leads the world’s largest industry association for the digitalising industries DIGITALEUROPE. The association represents over 45,000 digital companies in Europe with 41 National Association across 35 countries in EU plus Ukraine, Moldova, United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey and an office in Washington, D.C. (US).

DIGITALEUROPE represents companies from the following sectors each headed by an Executive Council: ICT, Defence, Health, Energy, Finance, Mobility and Public sector, and the association has quadrupled the size of the organization since 2017.

The organisation strives to create open markets that are attractive for innovation, business investments and growth. The team works in the following services areas: Industry representation towards the EU, members states, US and other international policy leaders like G7, NATO and EDA; public-private partnerships, that creates security and competitiveness; boosting business opportunities and investment for the benefit of society and security.

Cecilia is a member of the European Commission’s Industrial Forum and High-Level Forum on European Standardisation. She is also a member of the Stakeholder Cybersecurity Certification Group of ENISA (the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity).

In March 2023, Cecilia received the Ukraine Peace Prize on behalf of DIGITALEUROPE in recognition of her work supporting Ukraine during the war. In June 2025, she was further honoured with an award from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence for her continued support of Ukraine through DIGITALEUROPE, including initiatives such as supporting dual-use innovation, building EU–Ukraine digital partnerships, advocating for ICT in emergency mechanisms, and donating equipment to schools and hospitals.

Formerly, Cecilia has served as advisor to the Danish Foreign Ministry on digital diplomacy and the Danish Defence Ministry on digital security and defence. In 2020 she was appointed as a member of the Advisory Group to the Secretary General of NATO on Emerging and Disruptive Technologies and has profound understanding of digital defence and security and hybrid threats.

She also held a seat in the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, in the B20 Digital Transformation Taskforce, and in the European Commission’s Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition.

Cecilia has more than 25 years of experience in the ICT industry. She previously held international positions at IBM and Oracle and was the CEO of two scale-ups, building business across Europe, US and Asia. She served as Board Member of the Danish Chamber of Commerce and was President of the Board of the Danish ICT association (ITB), the President of the Danish Business and Export Grant Committee for 9 years.