Behind the boardroom confidence, CEOs are juggling competing demands. So, we asked five of Malta’s business leaders what keeps them up at night. Their candid answers reveal the tensions, trade-offs and frustrations influencing leadership in 2026 – from AI disruption and workforce strain to bureaucracy, cash flow and changing regulations.
Here’s what Melita CEO Harald Roesch had to say.
What keeps you awake at night as a CEO in Malta right now?
I see it as key that I don’t stay awake at night – I need to operate at 110 per cent every day for my team and stakeholders. Complexity is part of the job. Going through Melita’s recent sale to Goldman Sachs was additional workload, but it was completed without lost sleep.
What’s the one business risk you’re most worried about in 2026?
Cybersecurity. We need to stay ahead of cyber criminals. We have layers of protection for our network, our business customers and residential customers, which we’re constantly enhancing.
If you could change one thing about Malta’s business environment tomorrow, what would it be?
Finding ways to turn Maltese innovations into international success cases. Through the PRISM consortium, Melita built a quantum node network enabling quantum-secure communication. There’s world-leading research happening here. Local collaboration can unlock international opportunities –
I’d like to see more of it.
What’s one thing happening in Malta that makes you feel positive about the future?
A growing awareness of community and the environment. There are more electric vehicles on the road, and more people are using buses and ferries. The quantity and quality of submissions to the Melita Foundation have grown over the past five years. It points to a future where wellbeing is being considered alongside economic growth.
Apart from Harald Roesch, MaltaCEOs.mt also spoke to Cenk Kahraman (CEO of Finance Incorporated Ltd), Dr James Cassar (Managing Director of 242 Group), Josef Said (CEO of Konnekt), and Alexander Chetcuti (CEO of Lift Services Ltd) on this subject. Watch this space as these interviews will be published in the following days on our website.
This forms part of a feature first published on Malta CEOs 2026, the sister print brand to MaltaCEOs.mt, both owned by Content House.
The CEO says OZO’s ethical positioning gives it a competitive advantage: ‘Serious clients want ethical employers.’
Amongst competing demands, AI disruption, and bureaucracy, Malta's CEOs always have something on their mind.
‘Beyond funding, we must support an ecosystem that encourages risk-taking and global competitiveness,’ says the Malta Enterprise CEO.
Investors are not only looking for proven performance, but also ‘good returns’ – returns generated the right way.