Cristina Alina Smocot, born in 1974 in Bucharest, is a civil engineer by training with a strong background in enterprise IT and cybersecurity. She spent eight years working as an SAP consultant across various modules, followed by four years as an Integration and Test Manager for after-sales systems. She then served three years as a Rollout Manager, coordinating deployments of after-sales systems in multiple international markets. For the past decade, Cristina has focused on IT security within the Volkswagen Group, where she managed the rollout of a multi-year, group-wide IT security program. Since 2022, she has been leading the Zero Trust Initiative at the group level, driving strategic implementation of modern security architectures across the organization.

The Volkswagen Group with its headquarters in Wolfsburg is one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers and the largest carmaker in Europe. The Group is made up of ten brands from seven European countries: Volkswagen, Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge, ŠKODA, SEAT, CUPRA, Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche and Ducati. Our group sells vehicles in 153 countries and operates 114 production plants worldwide. Each working day, around 675,000 employees worldwide produce cars, are involved in vehicle-related services or work in the other fields of business. Our goal is to make mobility sustainable for us and for future generations. Our promise: With electric drive, digital networking and autonomous driving, we make the automobile clean, quiet, intelligent and safe. At the same time, our core product becomes even more emotional and offers a completely new driving experience. It is also becoming part of the solution when it comes to climate and environmental protection. In this way, the car can continue to be a cornerstone of contemporary, individual and affordable mobility in the future.