Trusted Advisor for EU Cyber Regulation & GRC Automation

Axel Höhnke

What I Do

I turn the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), NIS2 and ISO 27001 requirements into streamlined, business-aligned security programmes for European organisations. As an expert adviser to Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and a contributor to the forthcoming CRA healthcare standards, I translate draft regulation into actionable controls before it becomes mandatory—giving my clients a strategic head start.

Service Pillars

Pillar

How You Benefit

Regulatory Foresight & Translation

Get clear, practicable controls mapped from evolving EU directives and standards—months ahead of enforcement.

Virtual CISO & Governance

Embed ISO 27001, SOC 2, DORA and ISO 42001 in under six months, without the cost of a full-time C-suite hire.

Accelerated Audit Readiness

Reach certification-ready status at record speed; e.g., ISO 27001 for a biotech scale-up in just two weeks.

End-to-End Compliance Automation

Achieve GDPR, SOC 2 and PCI-DSS alignment with tool stacks like Vanta, slashing manual overhead and audit fatigue.


Track Record

  • 25 years in payments, telecoms and cloud services—including leadership roles at OTTO Group’s Yapital, RadioOpt/Vodafone and Microsoft Advertising.
  • Fluent across software and hardware lifecycles, bridging C-level strategy and engineering realities.
  • Documented results: SME and scale-up clients across Europe cite resilient operations, faster sales cycles and sharply reduced audit findings.


Working Style

  • 1. Business-first scoping – map exact needs, ignore the rest.
  • 2. Lean control design – only what adds measurable value.
  • 3. Automation everywhere – minimise manual touchpoints, maximise resilience.


The outcome: robust security without unnecessary bureaucracy.

Hamburg, Germany | Serving clients across Europe
axel@axelhoehnke.com | References available on request


Let me help you

My experience spans senior roles, including Managing Director at RadioOpt/Vodafone and with startups backed by Microsoft, Otto Group and Hasso Plattner Ventures. I hold certifications in Data Science, Governance Risk & Compliance Automation, and Autonomous Penetration Testing


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