Casper Klynge is Zscaler’ s Vice President, Head of Government Partnerships and Public Policy across EMEA. He leads political work and strategic relationships with governments, international and regional organisations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, helping countries, organisations and critical infrastructure operators mitigate cybersecurity issues as well as ensuring data protection and digital sovereignty requirements. Klynge previously had a career in foreign affairs spanning several roles in the EU, NATO and in government. Following the announcement on June 12 that the US government had suspended access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all foreign nationals, never has the topic of digital sovereignty been more relevant. He discusses how AI has affected digital sovereignty and the conversations surrounding it.

Tell me a bit about your job role.

I have been in this role for a little less than two years. It’ s a relatively new job, even though the company is not new and been around for a long time. A couple of years ago, Zscaler rightly understood that you need to focus on political affairs once you reach a certain level; that’ s part of the discipline. You need to be able to have advisory capabilities and look at how you handle not only governments, but also the communications better, how you brand the company, how you align with regulations. I have a background in government as a diplomat for many years and I then worked for the European Union for many years, for NATO, and then I jumped to the dark side; I was with Microsoft for three years, doing the same job in Europe, and then here I am.

Was it a big decision to make that jump?

I get that question quite often, including from friends. It’ s much less dramatic than people make out, because I did a political job before; I was representing interests of a country or an organisation, trying to build bridges between the

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