News in … I’ve been shortlisted for the Privacy Executive of the Year Award

It’s the PICCASO (Privacy, InfoSec, Culture Change & Awareness Societal Organisation) Awards ceremony tonight.

I’m super proud and honoured to have been shortlisted in the category of Privacy Executive of the Year.

A huge thank you to the team for recognising my efforts in building and leading a privacy team. My journey has not been linear and this recognition has been a great point of reflection on my work to date leading The Information Collective.

Back in 2017 I set The Information Collective’s mission to make data privacy simpler for businesses to operationalise. As we continued to work with clients, I saw the growing need to build ethics and fairness into tech solutions.

As a Black woman from a working class background, I understand and have experienced the harmful effects of inaccurate profiling, stereotypes, and bias. All of which usually stems from inaccurate data - the fruit of the poisonous tree.

In 2020 in an effort to insert truth and fairness at the root of the tree that is our digital world, I repositioned our client base. We support tech executives from underrepresented backgrounds or Big Tech with fairness as a core principle to their mission.

By focussing on using our privacy expertise to contribute towards building a fairer digital society, I am pleased that, over the last year alone, our privacy solutions at The Information Collective have helped our clients to win awards and to bring ground breaking tech applications to global consumers.

Due to client commitments in the Caribbean region, I am unable to attend the awards this evening. I wish my fellow nominees success and look forward to seeing what great privacy innovations spring from tonight’s gathering.

Best of luck to all of us shortlisted as Privacy Executive of the Year:

João Barreiro
Rob Masson - CEO, The DPO Centre Ltd
Merilyne D.
James Fenelon
Sunny Vara
Gary Davis
Robert Baugh, and myself
Samantha Simms - The DPO Dr.