Helmut Leopold has 30 years of experience in the IT and communication technology market. Currently he is with the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology where he heads the Digital Safety and Security Center. In this function he is responsible for next generation digital technologies such as digital biometric systems, cyber security, encryption, quantum technologies, artificial intelligence, blockchain and sensor systems, among others.

Before AIT he was with Alcatel-Lucent and with Telekom Austria, the largest network operator in Austria. As acting CTO, ‎he was responsible for the digitalization program and was the driving force for the ‎broadband and interactive TV service roll-out. He was chairman of the Broadband Services Forum (BSF), San Francisco, USA, was founder and vice president of the Austrian telecommunication research center FTW and president of the Austrian IPv6 taskforce. Currently he is among others president of the Austrian Organization for Information and Communication Technology (GIT) and Board Member of the Austrian Electrotechnical Association (OVE), is leading national task forces on cyber security for the Austrian Federal Chancellery, as well as for the Austrian Industry 4.0 platform, and is also board member of the Austrian society for Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership (ECSEL).

Helmut Leopold holds a Masters’ degree Dipl.-Ing. in Computer Science from the Vienna University of Technology and made his PhD at the University of Lancaster, UK.