Speakers

John Edwards began his role as UK Information Commissioner on 4 January, 2022.

Mr. Edwards, who joins on a five year term, spent eight years as New Zealand Privacy Commissioner from 2014-2021.

Mr. Edwards was educated in New Plymouth, New Zealand and achieved a Bachelor of Laws and Masters in Public Policy at the University of Wellington.

He worked as a solicitor and barrister in public law and policy for more than 20 years, including time as a policy adviser to the New Zealand Prime Minister and Cabinet around Freedom of Information.

Claire Archibald is a Legal Director at Browne Jacobson solicitors, in their Education Data Protection specialism. Claire previously acted as a Service Lead at the Education Data Hub, providing data protection consultancy to schools across England. She has experience in project management, counselling and working as a School Business Officer which gives her a unique understanding of the challenges schools face with data protection and freedom of information compliance.

Lisa Greaves is an attorney-at-law of over 20 years, experience. As Data Protection Commissioner, Lisa has the overall responsibility of developing and implementing a regulatory framework for the processing of personal data which is a burgeoning regime within Barbados and the wider Caribbean. Prior to being Data Protection Commissioner, Lisa worked with the Barbados Financial Intelligence Unit in the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering of Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) space. She has been a featured speaker at Conferences both on data privacy and anti-money laundering and is the mother of 2 beautiful children.

Paul Mutch is Deputy Head of Policy & Information with the Scottish information Commissioner. The Policy and Information Team has a wide range of responsibilities, working to promote FOI rights and good practice to a range of stakeholders, including the public, public authorities, elected representatives the third sector and the media. Paul’s current work areas include supporting the Commissioner’s engagement with proposals to amend FOI in Scotland, developing recommendations to update Scotland’s FOI codes of practice and working on the Commissioner’s intervention to improve the FOI performance of the Scottish Government. Paul previously led on work to support Scottish housing associations as they prepared for FOI designation. Paul has been working at the Commissioner’s office since 2003.

Sapna Arora is a Regulatory Enforcement Solicitor at the ICO. She joined the ICO in 2017. She manages a caseload of Tribunal appeals against the Commissioner’s Decision Notices. Sapna also conducts other civil litigation and provides advice to other departments. Sapna is a Mental Health First Aider and a member of the out of hours personal data breach team. She qualified as a Solicitor in 2014 and has a personal injury and regulatory background.

Freddie Baker is a Senior Policy Officer in the Regulatory Policy Projects team and has been with the ICO since January 2018. He has significant experience of public sector issues and specialises in health and social care policy.

Emma Bate is a Legal Director at the Information Commissioner’s Office, overseeing the Data Privacy Advice and Contracts and Compliance legal teams.

She joined the ICO in 2017 from private practice where she had practiced as a data protection lawyer for 20 years. Emma often complains that her work is always interesting, important, and urgent! She supported the development of the ICO Sandbox, leads the ICO’s legal work on international transfers, and advised on ICO’s approach to controllers, processors and joint controllers for AI, cloud and other complex technology solutions.

Stephen Bonner, Deputy Commissioner, Regulatory Supervision, is responsible for leading supervision and enforcement matters across the organisation. His work includes ensuring that the ICO is positioned to effectively regulate in the digital landscape; and the ICO’s investigative, regulatory cyber, audit and assurance teams deliver their strategic plans. He fronts communications, public and stakeholder engagement on how taking a pragmatic and balanced approach to privacy can help organisations thrive whilst protecting the rights of the most vulnerable.

Stephen sits on the UK National Cyber Advisory Board, to challenge, support and inform the UK’s strategic approach to cyber security and is a fellow and board member of CIISec, the chartered institute for cyber security professionals.

Roger Cawthorne is a Senior Case Officer at the ICO. He joined the ICO in 2017 and has handled well over 1,000 FOIA and EIR complaints. His current primary focus is on complaints to organisations in the health, education and transport sectors. Roger is making his DPPC debut.

Deborah Clark has worked in freedom of information since its implementation. She spent 9 years as a Senior Case Officer in ICO before moving onto management roles which have included the Casework team dealing with complaints about the police and justice sector, the Insight and Compliance Team and the FOI Policy team. Deborah Clark is currently managing the ICO’s FOI Upstream Regulation team – a team designed to provide more support for public authorities dealing with FOI requests and to promote good practice.

Aiden Clarkson joined the ICO in 2015. Starting on the helpline, he’s held various roles, including working in the ICO’s own Information Access team, handling FOI and SAR requests. Now he works in the FOI & Transparency Directorate’s Upstream Regulation team, which devises and develops resources to support compliance and good practice.

Clara ClarkNevola leads the AI Compliance group within the ICO’s Technology Department, which provides AI technical and policy expertise to the ICO’s stakeholder engagement and supervision activities. Clara’s recent work at the ICO includes the generative AI call for evidence series, co-producing guidance on privacy enhancing technologies and on anonymisation and leading on the G7 DPAs' Emerging Technologies Working Group case study on synthetic data.

Sarah Coggrave is a Senior Information Access Officer and a member of the ICO’s Information Access Team. She specialises in handling information requests made by current and former ICO employees, but also deals with requests made by the public.

Rob Cole has been with the ICO since 2002. In this time he has worked mostly within our customer facing, advice giving teams as well as our investigation and regulatory action departments.

Steve Connolly is Group Manager for the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Audit Team focusing on cyber security controls and processes in digital service providers. Steve joined the ICO in 2016 and has worked in Customer Contact, the Personal Data Breach Service and GDPR Assurance teams.

Charlotte Dean joined the ICO in 2022, working in Legislative Reform. She moved into the FOI & Transparency Directorate later that year and has been working in the Upstream Regulation team ever since. The team aims to support public authorities in their compliance with the legislation and promoting good practice.

Iman ElMehdawy joined the ICO in 2005. She has worked in a number of different roles across the ICO, advising on compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998, the GDPR and the UK GDPR.

Iman took the position of Group Manager- Information Management and Compliance in November 2018. She is a certified data protection/GDPR practitioner, an Information Rights Network Trainer, a qualified ICO Internal Coach, a certified information management practitioner, and an ISO27001 certified lead auditor.

Catherine Evans O’Brien is the Head of Communities at the ICO. She is provides strategic direction, coordination and oversight for the ICO’s work with communities, with a particular focus on those who may be in a vulnerable situation, or with unmet needs.

Catherine has extensive experience across both policy and engagement. Before coming to the ICO, Catherine worked within health and social care policy, with a particular interest in older people, people living with dementia, and the introduction of new health technologies.

Alison Fletcher is a Senior Policy Officer and a member of the Public Advice and Data Protection Complaints department. She focusses on updating and creating new guidance for the ‘For the Public part of the ICO website, as well as continuous improvement within the department.

Alice Gradwell began her career at the ICO six years ago, as a Case Officer in Public Advice and Data Protection Complaints Services where she dealt with complaints about the Ministry of Justice. She moved to the FOI complaints department four years ago, where she specialises in complaints about the health and education sector and is part of the training network. This is her second year speaking at the DPPC.

Abigail Hackston, Senior Policy Officer in the ICO’s Innovation Advice team, is responsible for engaging with organisations and providing regulatory certainty in response to questions submitted to the Innovation Advice service. Abigail has been with the ICO for over seven years, and has worked on a variety of projects, including helping to draft the “Explaining decisions made with AI” guidance. She helped develop and shape the Innovation Advice service, joining the team in advance of the testing phase of the service.

Catherine Halaas has worked at the ICO as a Group Manager in Assurance for 8 years. Her role is to lead audit teams in both consensual and compulsory audits. Prior to the ICO, she worked for 15 years in telecoms; in contact centres and quality compliance.

Rosina Harrison is a Lead Case Officer in the Personal Data Breach Service who has worked at the ICO since July 2021. Her work mainly involves assessing breach reports and providing advice to organisations. Rosina has acted as sector specialist in relation to Cyber Incidents, NIS and the Online Technology sector.

Debbie Heaton is a Senior Policy Officer in Public Affairs. She has a particular interest in data sharing to tackle debt and fraud, including use of the powers under the Digital Economy Act. Debbie is also a network trainer, providing data protection training to new members of ICO staff.

Will Johnson joined the ICO in April 2020 as a Senior Policy Officer. He works in the Regulatory Policy Projects directorate supporting the ICO's regulatory activity with policy development, and has experience in financial services, education, and health & social care.

Hafeeza Joorawan is a Senior Policy Officer in the Public Affairs Department, working in the Sectors Team, managing a portfolio of education sector stakeholders.

Sarah Lawrence is a Senior Policy Officer in the Central Government team. She manages the ICO's relationships with key central government stakeholders, and also works with a variety of stakeholders on data sharing, including for safeguarding children.

Sarah Laws is the Data Protection Manager at London Borough of Camden where she is the FOI and data protection lead. Her team won FOI Team of the Year 2023 and Camden are well known for their innovative approach to FOI and transparency. Sarah is a popular speaker on FOI and data protection, and is an advocate for a pragmatic customer focussed approach to information rights.

Kimberly Mai is a Principal Technology Adviser in AI Compliance at the Information Commissioner’s Office She joined in March 2024. She is also a PhD researcher at University College London. Her PhD research on how humans cannot reliably detect speech deepfakes was featured in international news outlets including the BBC, New Scientist, and The Guardian. Kimberly holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics from the London School of Economics and a master’s degree in data science and machine learning from University College London. Her research interests include anomaly detection, data protection, and AI governance.

David Meller is a Lead Case Officer in the Personal Data Breach Service and has been with the team since May 2023. The Personal Data Breach team’s predominant work is assessing personal data breach reports and providing advice to organisations. David has a background in education, politics and local government.

Laura Middleton became Group Manager for the Personal Data Breach Service in 2017. Laura was previously a Team Manager in Investigations – she now has over 10 years’ experience in dealing with personal data breaches. Laura joined the ICO in 2005.

Daniel Morgan has recently started a new position on the BCRs and International Transfers team, providing assurance on international transfers of personal data. Before this, he worked as a Lead Auditor and carried out data protection and Freedom of Information audits of a wide range of organisations. Daniel started out at the ICO in Business Services, advising organisations from across the economy on their data protection obligations.

Daniel Newbury is a Lead Policy Officer in the Public Affairs Team and joined the ICO in January 2018. Daniel has experience engaging with government departments and agencies, providing advice on matters relating to data protection and privacy, including advising on projects/programmes that involve significant sharing of personal data.

Ribia Nisa joined the ICO in 2018 and worked in Business Advice Services as a Case Officer and then as a Lead Fees Officer.

Currently, working as a Team Manager in Public Advice and Data Protection Complaints department. Ribia’s current areas of focus includes local government, housing, and the gambling sector.

Sharon Nuttall joined the ICO in 2021 and is a Senior Policy Officer in the Regulatory Policy Projects team. Sharon has policy experience across a range of sectors including in the health sector.

Kerry O’Donnell is a Senior Case Officer in the BCR and International Transfers team. She joined the ICO in 2011 and worked in Business Services and as a Lead Auditor leading a number of data protection audits before joining the BCR and International Transfers team in 2018.

Harry Powell became a Senior Engagement and Policy Officer within Business Services in September 2022, a role which looks to maintain and increase the knowledge and understanding of the organisations which contact the ICOs Business Advice department.
Prior to this, Harry was a Lead Case Officer in the Personal Data Breach Service. Harry joined the ICO in 2018.

After being a team manager for many years, Rob took up the role of Senior Engagement and Policy Officer within Business Services in September 2022, This role looks to maintain and increase the knowledge and understanding of the organisations which contact the ICOs Business Advice department.

Kitty Rosser is a Principal Lawyer at the Information Commissioner’s Office, working within the Data Privacy Advice team.

Kitty joined the ICO in 2023, having spent 15 years advising on data protection matters as a lawyer in private practice. Since joining the ICO, the focus of her work has been on international transfers under the UK GDPR and Part 3.

Dominic Smith is a Group Manager in the public advice and data protection complaints department. He has worked at the ICO since 2014 and has experience of covering most sectors, currently with a focus on the policing sector and retail. Dom is also a key lead in driving one of the ICO25 shifts of approach; empathising with customers.

Alex Sykes is a Senior Auditor in the Assurance Department and is responsible for carrying out some of our more complex or high priority audits. He has completed engagements with a wide range of data controllers in both public and private sectors.

Helen Thomas joined the ICO’s team in Wales in 2013, where she is a Senior Policy Officer. Her main areas of interest include the health, education and central government sectors. Prior to that Helen was a civil servant for 17 years in Westminster and the Welsh Government, working mainly in health and sustainable development.

Heather Toomey recently joined the ICO as Principal Cyber Specialist in the Regulatory Cyber Directorate. As a cyber security professional with 18 years’ experience, mostly in local or central government, her focus is on empowering organisations to improve their cyber resilience and developing strategy in relation to cyber data and cyber regulatory activities.

Terna Waya has been involved in freedom of information regulation at various levels for over 15 years. He is passionate about supporting public authorities with their FOI practice.

Tom Wilkinson  is a Principal Cyber Specialist in the Cyber Investigations Team. He joined the ICO in July 2023 and has been working on a number of high-profile incidents, working with a team of expert colleagues examining UKGDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 infringements.

Paul Wilson has over 30 years of experience in the global medical communications industry, and now applies his experience and skills within Regulatory Assurance at the ICO. He joined the ICO in September 2023, transitioning from senior executive roles in global agencies where his responsibilities included data protection and information governance.
In his role at the ICO, Paul exercises considerable judgement in assessing the adequacy of data protection measures implemented by the organisations he audits. His background within agencies servicing the heavily regulated pharmaceutical sector significantly enhances this process.

Emma Wright is a Group Manager in the public advice and data protection complaints department. She has worked in the ICO for six years, previously having worked in the Civil Service for over 10 years. Emma has worked in the same department throughout her ICO career and has knowledge of issues relating to several sectors although her group’s current areas of focus are the local government, housing, and gambling sectors.