The upcoming year will be the most challenging yet for privacy teams. Not only will they begin the year accommodating a 50% increase in unique U.S. state privacy laws, but they’ll grapple with an increasingly complex data environment, rapidly increasing internal adoption of AI, and constrained internal resourcing.
We have been fortunate enough to meet and learn from a number of privacy leaders uniquely suited to face off against the year ahead. This article contains just a fraction of those brilliant voices. These seven individuals each share technical expertise, big-picture strategic vision, and a deep understanding of the privacy landscape that offer them a unique perspective on emerging privacy issues. Look to our watchlist for ideas on emerging voices to follow for best practices, insider insight, and much more.
Key takeaways:
- Privacy-by-design requires strong collaboration across departments, demanding a deep understanding and empathy of needs across internal and external users
- Increasing adoption of AI and other higher risk practices, plus constantly evolving regulation, result in a need for privacy teams to develop both more technical expertise and maintain vigilant continuing education on legal trends
- Organizations working with more highly regulated data, such as health or financial data, must work even further ahead on their privacy practices
Lauren Ervin
Associate General Counsel, Data Privacy, Compass
The modern data privacy leader must collaborate deeply with the rest of their organization if they are to truly achieve privacy by design. Lauren adeptly integrates privacy into company mission and vision by closely understanding her partners’ initiatives and aligning parallels. She has mastered the art of making legal counsel approachable, ensuring colleagues feel comfortable looping her in proactively, and as a result giving her the access she needs to advocate for privacy everywhere.
Heather Wood
Sr. Director, Data Privacy & Protection, Outreach
During our recent discussion on the evolving nature of privacy compliance, Heather emphasized the importance of bridging connections to Engineering teams and prioritizing new privacy roles that integrate technical proficiency with a deep understanding of privacy regulations. Her adaptability in taking on AI governance and ethics, data management, and third-party risk exemplifies how privacy professionals must evolve alongside rapidly advancing technology. Heather’s forward-thinking approach ensures that privacy teams remain not only compliant but also at the forefront of innovation.
Watch Heather discuss privacy’s transformation ahead
Dwight Turner
Security & Privacy Analyst, Trustology
Dwight brings a unique perspective to privacy, blending his cybersecurity expertise with his background in teaching and nonprofit leadership. In the weekly YouTube privacy series he cohosts, Dwight makes complex privacy topics such as dark patterns and AI governance accessible and engaging. Keeping up with privacy demands regular and consistent skill-building, and Dwight offers deep personal and professional insight in a dynamic and approachable way.
Tune into Dwight’s Privacy Playlist on Youtube
Ian Van Heyst
VP, IT Security & Data Privacy, FirstService Corp
Ian oversees data privacy across 10+ business entities such as California Closets and CertaPro Painters. Each individual brand has its own IT stack, company culture, and organizational process, and Ian is responsible for strategically uniting all brands to ensure FirstService stays ahead of emerging privacy issues. By working closely with all brands on their emerging AI governance, Ian has a strong understanding of what teams need to deploy AI strategically and safely within their organizations.
Rachel Malone
Senior Director, Product & E-Commerce, ByHeart
Parents trust ByHeart to provide the best nutrition for their babies and also trust ByHeart with consumer health data to maximize their experience. Parents have enough to worry about, so ByHeart ensures customer privacy management is straightforward and simple. While all e-commerce businesses are responsible for complying with privacy regulation, organizations like ByHeart are often ahead of the curve as they must also consider more demanding legislation regarding health data. Rachel understands privacy from the big picture of e-commerce success and efficiently organizes players across Product, Marketing, and Engineering to create the best possible privacy experience for ByHeart’s customers.
Molly Reed
Director, Marketing Operations, Ping Identity
Molly was the single most frequently nominated candidate in our recent Data Privacy Hero Awards, and privacy is far from her only responsibility. Molly’s role in marketing lends her a unique perspective on data privacy. As state regulation on marketing’s use of tracking technology grows increasingly complex, privacy needs marketing leaders like Molly who think carefully about data governance and the opportunity to leverage user privacy as a competitive advantage.
Kyle Comstock
Privacy and Regulatory Compliance Project Manager, Seamless.AI
Understanding privacy regulation requires a great deal of attention to nuance between numerous unique privacy laws now active across the globe, and the forward-thinking attention to understand what laws are likely to become relevant in the near future. Privacy is no longer a simple compliance check for the security team, organizations need dedicated and informed professionals like Kyle who can thoughtfully provide guidance that will last through rapidly changing legislation. Kyle is able to digest extremely dense regulatory material and support the organization in aligning business objectives with changing privacy and AI governance needs.
Meet more experts on Privacy Basecamp
Many of the privacy leaders we’ve mentioned are active on Privacy Basecamp, our Slack community for engaged privacy professionals to share their ideas and questions with peers. Privacy Basecamp also hosts regular idea sharing meetups called Privacy Huddles to help you forge new connections and gather support and feedback on your privacy strategy.
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