Acertitude Recruits Head of Cybersecurity/CISO for Adevinta Spain

July 23, 2026 – Acertitude has assisted in the recruitment of Xavi Bertomeu as Head of Cybersecurity and chief information security officer for Adevinta Spain, an EQT portfolio company The search was led by partners, Eliza Baker and Tim Cook with support from Finty Hunter and Hannah Elwiss.

Mr. Bertomeu brings more than a decade of experience in cybersecurity, information technology, product security, and digital risk management. Before joining Adevinta Spain, he served as product security director at Scopely and previously held an executive cybersecurity director and advisor role with Schwarz Global Services Barcelona. Earlier in his career, Mr. Bertomeu was chief information security officer and IT director at SCRM, Lidl’s international digital hub, and also served as director of the cybersecurity master’s program at Nuclio Digital School. He began his career in telecommunications and network operations roles with organizations including Nextret, Mediapro, Xarxa Oberta de Catalunya, and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

Adevinta Spain is a technology company that operates a portfolio of online digital marketplaces serving several of Spain’s largest classified sectors, including employment, real estate, automotive, and consumer goods. Headquartered in Barcelona, the company manages well-known platforms such as InfoJobs, Fotocasa, habitaclia, coches.net, motos.net, and Milanuncios, connecting millions of users with job opportunities, property listings, vehicles, and secondhand goods.

Acertitude is a global executive search firm and leadership consultancy committed to unleashing human potential. The firm works alongside ambitious private equity and portfolio companies to build leadership teams that drive impact, strengthening businesses at every stage of the deal lifecycle. With deep expertise across business services, consumer, healthcare, industrials, infrastructure, private equity, and technology, the firm’s consultants operate in North America and EMEA. Acertitude delivers executive search, assessment, and pre-deal solutions that help investors and executives make critical leadership decisions.

Ms. Baker is a partner at the firm and a key member of the firm’s private equity, consumer and healthcare practices. Her focus is on partnering with PE firms and portfolio companies in assessing and building executive management teams and boards. She brings over a decade of experience delivering international investor-backed C-suite and board search mandates across the deal cycle, with a committed focus on driving performance, transformation, and growth. Ms. Baker joined Acertitude as a principal in 2023.

Ms. Hunter is a senior associate within Acertitude’s global private equity practice, supporting executive searches across Europe and the U.S., with particular strength in CFO and CISO mandates. Since joining the firm in 2021 as an analyst, she has steadily expanded her scope and impact, earning recognition as a standout force within the London office. Ms. Hunter has been instrumental in building the firm’s functional private equity hiring practice across Europe, bringing diligence, tenacity, and a sharp eye for quality to every mandate she supports.

CISO Titles More Prevalent than Ever

The cybersecurity function continues to rise in prominence, expand in scope and gain visibility. Consequently, chief information security officers (CISOs) are increasingly expected to serve not just as technical leaders, but as enterprise-wide strategists. Their rise to the executive ranks brings greater influence but also greater demands, including wider accountability, more cross-functional engagement, and intensified expectations and oversight from senior leadership and boards, according to IANS and Artico Search’s 2026 State of the CISO Benchmark Report.

An executive-level title is widely viewed by CISOs as essential for influencing the business and driving meaningful impact, according to the IANS and Artico report. “It gives them access to strategic discussions, enables them to communicate security risks to top leadership and helps align security priorities with broader business objectives,” the study said. “A CISO’s place in the organizational hierarchy and their reporting line also shapes their visibility and influence. Those with executive-level titles and a reporting line to senior business leaders—formal or informal—are more likely to be involved in strategic decision-making than their director-level peers embedded within the IT function.”

“Executive CISO titling and positioning in a company’s organizational structure is not just about operational efficiency and bringing the right executive level visibility to technical risk discussions and priorities,” said Matt Comyns, president and co-founder of Artico. “When balancing priorities, teams and cross-functional leaders will respond more favorably to a true security executive peer, as opposed to someone several layers below them in an organizational hierarchy.”

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media