I am delighted to announce that Steve Wood will join the Information Accountability Foundation as a Senior Strategist, effective January 2, 2024. Steve is well known for his deep data protection regulatory experience of both the private and the public sector, and the wider political and international context.  He worked for 15 years at the UK ICO, the last six years as Deputy Commissioner and Chief Policy Advisor.  In this role he gained extensive international experience representing the UK at the European Data Protection Board, and as the Chair of the OECD Working party on Data Governance and Privacy.  Steve also oversaw the development of the ICO’s suite of data protection guidance for over 10 years.

Steve currently works as an independent consultant, researcher and writer.  He is a Visiting Policy Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, researching the impact of social media recommender systems on children. In 2022 he founded PrivacyX Consulting to provide specialist policy advice to organisations related to new and innovative regulatory challenges.  He has extensive experience in public speaking, and is frequently called on by governments and policy makers internationally to provide advice on law reform and the design of regulatory agencies.  He also advises on wider issues of digital regulation, such as AI and online safety and writes about these issues on his Substack (https://privacyx.substack.com).  He is also a Special Advisor to the magic circle law firm Allen & Overy.

The IAF will benefit hugely from Steve’s successful and respected convening skills, stakeholder engagement, writing and research.  He will also bring a European perspective to the team. 

I have worked closely with Steve for over 7 years and I know well his approach to data protection and regulatory issues – he champions data protection by design, enabling uses of data while ensuring effective protection.  His perspective on regulatory risk is practical, pragmatic and focused on outcomes. We are extremely excited to have Steve join our IAF strategy team!