Erik Guldentops is Executive Professor at the Management School of the University of Antwerp (UAMS), where he teaches on the subjects of IT risk management, control, security, audit and governance. He maintains a limited number of high level consulting relationships. He is Advisor to the Boards of the IT Governance Institute and the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). He invented the concept of CobiT in 1991 and has since been directing ISACA's CobiT Projects, with the objective to set, enhance and maintain the internationally accepted standard for control and governance over IT.

Guldentops joined SWIFT in the mid-1970s as a systems engineer, after holding technical supervisory positions in IT in major multinationals. He retired from SWIFT as director of security in 2001 where he held global line responsibilities for physical security, information security and business continuity. Before that he was Chief Inspector, in charge of audit and e-payment policy at the international banking cooperative, reporting to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors. During that period (1986-1992) he also proposed, initiated and oversaw the development and deployment of the first worldwide public key infrastructure to support the banking industry's requirement for secure authentication of financial transactions. In 1995 he moved to the corporate security function and initiated a five-year strategy to enhance and maintain his organization's leadership position in secure financial communications. This strategy is executed through a powerful blend of high technology, sophisticated risk management and advanced security awareness practices.

Guldentops is past president of the Benelux Chapter of ISACA and served as ISACA international executive vice president with responsibility for research. He holds graduate and post-graduate degrees in computer science and is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) as well as a Certified Information Security Manager (CISM).