Enrica Porcari joined CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics, in July 2021. In her quality as head of the Information Technologies department, Enrica oversees one of the most highly demanding computing environments in the research world.
Prior to holding this position, she was the UN World Food Programme’s Chief Information Officer and Director of Technology and the UN’s Emergency Telecommunications Cluster Chair. Enrica drove and oversaw WFP’s efforts to fully digitize its humanitarian response and development program activities. With her team, Enrica positioned WFP at the leading edge of facilitating a digital approach to humanitarian operations, further improving the lives of the people WFP supports. Enrica focused on turning WFP into a data-driven organization while establishing robust relationships with governments and the private sector toward achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
Enrica was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Council of Drones and Aerial Mobility and on the Boards of the technology industry association GSMA’s Mobile for Humanitarian Program and Big Data for Social Good Accelerator.
Enrica was the first CIO of the CGIAR Consortium (a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research for a food-secure future) where she was also their Director of Shared Services, providing executive leadership on IT, knowledge management, procurement and support services. Before CGIAR, she coordinated IT services and was instrumental in creating WFP’s IT Emergency Response Team, now known as FITTEST (the Fast IT and Telecommunications Emergency and Support Team), an arm of WFP that provides support to humanitarian operations worldwide.
Enrica is an Italian national and holds a Masters in social sciences from University of Milan and a Masters in International Procurement Management from University of Rome Tor Vergata. She is a Fellow of the Reuters Digital Vision Fellowship Programme at Stanford University.