Prighter Wins Double at the European CEO of the Year Awards 2026

EU Business News has recognised Prighter founder and CEO, Dr Andreas Mätzler, as Most Innovative Privacy Software & Services CEO 2026. In the same awards programme, Prighter also won Best Global Privacy Representation Platform 2026.

The first award recognises how Andreas has built and led the company since 2018. The second is for our global privacy representation service, which now sits alongside digital compliance and EU AI Act compliance work for clients around the world.

What Are the European CEO of the Year Awards?

The European CEO of the Year Awards are run every year by EU Business News, a business publication from the UK-based AI Global Media group. The awards recognise CEOs who show leadership, vision and a real impact on their organisations and industries.

Winners are named in categories by sector and specialism rather than as a single overall prize. That makes it possible to recognise leaders in fields such as privacy and compliance alongside those in finance, technology or construction. According to the organiser, an experienced panel assesses each nominee on their achievements, their leadership and what they have contributed to their industry.

Each year’s winners appear in an official winners list and a celebratory magazine published by EU Business News.

How Did Prighter Earn Recognition?

The two awards reflect both parts of Prighter’s work: the representative services that clients rely on to meet their legal obligations abroad, and the software that keeps that work manageable as the number of laws grows.

Market-Leading Representative Services

Many regulations apply to companies far beyond the country that passed them, and require those companies to name a local representative. Prighter takes on that role under a range of privacy, digital governance, and AI governance regulations, including the EU GDPR, the UK GDPR, the Swiss FADP and Türkiye’s KVKK, as well as the Digital Services Act, NIS2, the Data Act and the EU AI Act.

Acting as a legal Representative, we handle contact with regulators and requests from individuals. Clients get GDPR representative services, digital compliance support and AI governance from one partner, rather than appointing someone new for each law.

Innovative Software to Modernise Compliance

Prighter is developing a modular SaaS platform to manage the day-to-day work that compliance creates. Privacy Rights Manager automates how data subject requests are received, sorted and fulfilled. Incident Manager gives teams a structured workflow for breaches and keeps a full record for audit.

Developing this privacy compliance software is the company’s main focus, so the platform can support new frameworks as they arrive without adding manual work for clients.

Leading Prighter Ahead

Early in his career, Dr Mätzler made a deliberate choice not to follow the usual route to partnership at a large law firm. Instead, he chose to build something, and evolve beyond the hierarchies of legal practice. His firm belief in the value of cross-functional work, and bringing expertise from different regions and backgrounds into problem solving is precisely how we work today. This is how we iterate and ship solutions that actively support global compliance, even as legal frameworks continue to evolve.

“As AI, digital compliance and privacy frameworks continue to develop, organisations will need partners who can keep up with the changes and turn them into practical solutions. We intend to keep being that partner,” says Dr Mätzler.

Read More

EU Business News has published the official press release and the full list of winners. The winners' magazine includes an article on Prighter.

If your organisation needs a representative in Europe, or wants to see how our software works, get in touch with our team.