Dr. Zainal Abidin Sait, Deputy Director-General, Personal Data Protection Department (PDPD) Malaysia

Dr, Zainal Abidin Sait is currently the Deputy Director General for Malaysian Personal Data Protection Department. Since his first involvement in public service in 1996, Dr. Zainal has held posts in various government organisations including the Ministry of Finance, Malaysian Immigration Department, Ministry of Education, the National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN), and the Public Service Department. Dr. Zainal holds a Diploma in Public Management (National Institute of Public Administration INTAN), Bachelor of Mathematics (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)), Masters in IT Management (Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), and a Doctoral degree in Business Administration from Multimedia University (MMU). 

Tuan Haji Abu Hassan Ismail, Former Commissioner, Personal Data Protection Department (PDPD) Malaysia

Tuan Haji Abu Hassan Ismail acted as the the first Malaysian Personal Data Protection Commissioner. He has had more than 40 years of marketplace experience in the United Kingdom and Malaysia. Tuan Haji Abu Hassan led the Jabatan Perlindungan Data Peribadi (JPDP) together with his expanding team until his retirement from public service in 2014. 

Hiroshi Miyashita, Former Privacy Officer, Cabinet Office of Japan

Dr. Miyashita is associate professor of law at Chuo University, Japan.  He was appointed the first privacy officer for international relations in the Cabinet Office of Japan under the two Prime Ministers and his privacy experiences include the Japanese delegation for OECD, APEC, APPA and Privacy Commissioner’s meetings and the member of various committees on privacy policies of the Japanese Ministries.  He received Doctor in Law from Hitotsubashi University and is a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School and CRIDS (Centre de Recherche Information, Droit et Société), University of Namur in 2012-13.  He has numerous publications, comments and speeches on privacy.

Cecile de Trevagne, Expert, Data Protection Unit, Council of Europe; Professor, Law Faculty, University of Namur; Research-Director, Research Centre in Information, Law and Society (CRIDS)

Prof. Dr. Cécile de Terwangne is professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Namur. She teaches courses in IT Law, Human Rights and Information Society, and in Data Protection Law. She is director of the Advanced Master in IT Law at the University of Namur. She is Research Director in the ‘Freedoms in the Information Society’ Unit of the Research Centre in Information, Law and Society (CRIDS – University of Namur). She took part to numerous European and national researches in the fields of data protection, privacy and ICT, Tranborder data flows, e.Governement, Public sector information Access & Re-use. She has worked as an expert for the Council of Europe and for the European Commission of the European Union. She is the co-author and editor of several books dedicated to data protection. She has also written numerous articles published in national and international journals.  

Nakorn Serirak, Consultant & Former Freedom of Information & Privacy Expert, Information Commissioner's Office, Prime Minister's Office, Thailand

Dr.Nakorn Serirak, Consultant & former Freedom of Information and Privacy Expert at the Prime Minister's office of the Information Commissioner of Thailand, is currently a lecturer at College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University. He has been supervising and giving lectures for universities and state agencies on Freedom of Information, Privacy Protection, Good Governance, Political Science and Local Government.

Dr. Nakorn Serirak is also doing research for Thammasat University Research Center and has consulting role as the Policy Advisor at China Radio International. His research experience is also on project management and social development. He is the founder of Privacy Thailand, newly established organization working on promoting public awareness on the Right of Privacy for Thai society.

Trevor Hughes, President, International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)

J. Trevor Hughes is the president and CEO of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). In this role, Hughes leads the world’s largest association of privacy professionals.

A native of Canada, Hughes is an experienced attorney in privacy, technology and marketing law. He has provided testimony before the U.S. Congress Commerce Committee, the Senate Commerce Committee, the Federal Trade Commission, the Home Affairs Committee of the British Parliament and the EU Parliament on issues of privacy, surveillance, spam and privacy-sensitive technologies.

Hughes previously served as the executive director of the Network Advertising Initiative, a leading online privacy trade association, and the Email Sender and Provider Coalition, a trade association working on e-mail policy and practices. He is also an adjunct professor of law at the University of Maine School of Law.

Terry McQuay, President & Founder, Nymity

Terry McQuay is President and Founder of Nymity Inc. Terry is a Certified Information Privacy Professional/Manager (CIPP/US, CIPP/E, CIPP/C, CIPP/G, and CIPM) and the Managing Editor of the current edition of the IAPP Certification Foundations textbook entitled, "Foundations of Information Privacy and Data Protection”, as well as the author of the “The Privacy Office Guide to Demonstrating Accountability”. Terry is a Fellow for the Ponemon Institute, on the Advisory Council for The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF), and is a leadership member of the Information Accountability Foundation. Terry is also a member of the Centre for Information Policy Leadership (CIPL), Privacy by Design (PbD) Ambassador, and is also involved with the USCIB, BIAC, ICC, and attends OECD and APEC privacy meetings. Before founding Nymity, Terry was the Partner at a security solutions firm and spent a number of years at Hewlett-Packard. Terry holds an Honours B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Guelph.

Ben Gerber, Global Privacy Officer, Standard Chartered Bank 

Ben Gerber is committed to enabling organizations to pursue new opportunities and next-generation products and services, while proactively managing risk, achieving regulatory requirements and ensuring solid privacy and security practices.  He bridges ideas and drives execution across business lines, technology, legal, compliance and risk management.

As the Global Privacy Officer at Standard Chartered, he developed and leads the Group’s first global privacy function, addressing privacy, data protection, bank secrecy, and related sharing, disclosure, cross-jurisdictional transfer and data sovereignty issues across more than 70 countries.

Previously at the MITRE Corporation, a Federally Funded Research and Development Center chartered to work in the public interest, he was a trusted advisor on privacy strategy for US executive branch agencies dealing with healthcare, financial regulation, taxation, defense, homeland security, and intelligence.

Prior to this, Ben was the Privacy Services Lead for IBM Global Business Services where he led multinational companies and government clients across the globe in developing and maintaining solid privacy and security practices.  This enabled clients to execute innovative business strategies, use new technologies and harness the power of data.  As the SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) & Cloud Security Lead for Financial Services he led financial institutions in adopting SOA and Cloud technology.  Leveraging SOA he built solutions for enhancing security and privacy, including security as a service and controls for cross-border data flows.

Earlier in his career, Ben lead an e-business team focused on privacy and security at IBM, worked for Time Warner addressing security and compliance issues and was the president of an Internet services company focused on security and e-business.  He created multiple patented inventions for privacy enhancing technology and has authored articles on privacy, security and data related vendor management.  Ben is certified as a CISSP, CISA, CPP, CIPP/US and CIPP/G.

Dana Simberkoff, Chief Compliance & Risk Officer, AvePoint, US

Dana Louise Simberkoff is the Chief Compliance and Risk Officer at AvePoint, Inc. She is responsible for AvePoint’s global Compliance team of subject matter experts and  for executive level consulting, research and analytical support on current and upcoming industry trends, technology, standards, best practices, concepts and solutions for risk management and compliance (e.g. Privacy, Information Security and Information Assurance, Data Governance, Compliance). Ms. Simberkoff is responsible for maintaining relationships with executive management and multiple constituencies, both internal and external to the corporation, providing guidance on product direction, technology enhancements, customer challenges and market opportunities.

Ms. Simberkoff is on the Education Advisory Board for the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). She holds a BA from Dartmouth College and a JD from Suffolk University Law School.

Katsumi Kojima, Corporate Officer, Country Compliance Officer Japan, Sanofi K.K.

Katsumi KOJIMA is currently the Corporate and Country Compliance Officer for Sanofi K. K. and has moved into his current role from his position as a Director, Regional Compliance Officer APAC & JAPAN of Edwards Lifesciences (Asia) Pte Ltd. He has been working for compliance field in the medical device industry over ten (10) years. He is a member of Legal/Compliance Committee of American Medical Devices & Diagnostics Manufacturers’ Association (AMDD) in Japan and a member of Legal/Compliance Forum of Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA) in Australia.  He engaged in a speaker and a panellist on compliance topics in various conferences, such as Asia Ethics Summit (Singapore 2014), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Nanjing, China 2014),  Advanced Medical Technology Association and Medical Technology Association of Australia Compliance Conference (Singapore 2014), and Global MedTech Compliance Conference  (Barcelona, Spain 2014).

He earned LLB from Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan) and LLM from Hitotsubashi University (Tokyo, Japan). In addition, he received certification from INSEAD Compliance Implementation Leadership 1 (Fontainebleau, France) and Seton Hall Law School Aisa-Pacific Healthcare Compliance (Singapore). Since 2010, he has served as a Visiting Lecturer at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine (Kyoto, Japan). In addition, he has served as a mentor at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Business Ethics for SMEs forum (medical device sector).

May-Ann Lim, Executive Director, Asia Cloud Computing Association

May-Ann is concurrently the Managing Director of the technology think tank and research firm, TRPC Pte Ltd, and also the Executive Director of the Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA).

She has over a decade of experience in public policy, tech policy development, and government relations communications across the Asia Pacific, and has worked with many global, regional, and local organisations such as ASEAN, the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC), on thought leadership development, government outreach and stakeholder engagement efforts.

Her career has spanned a number of global, regional and local institutions, including the World Bank, World Vision, the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA), and the Singapore Internet Project. Through the ACCA, she has worked in multiple markets lobbying for the acceleration of ICT and cloud industries, and other Internet adoption policies.  She is also active in the Internet Society (ISOC), and is co-convenor of CSIS Pacific Forum’s Young Leaders’ Programme Singapore (YLP SG.)

Based in Singapore, May-Ann also lectures on Internet and ICT Policy in the Communications and New Media Department in the National University of Singapore (NUS). 

Sam Pfeifle, Publications Director, International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)

As publications director, Sam oversees everything from the Daily Dashboard to the monthly Privacy Advisor to the IAPP's various blogs, books and Resource Center items. If you'd like to contribute to the privacy body of knowledge the IAPP curates on a daily basis—even if you'd like to speak at one of our events—Pfeifle is your first point of contact.

Pfeifle came to the IAPP after stints overseeing a number of B2B publications, including titles in the physical security, workboat and 3D data capture industries. He began his journalism career with the alternative newsweekly The Portland Phoenix, and still writes a local music column for the paper on a weekly basis. Pfeifle has a BS in education and a BA in English from the University of Vermont, and spent two years as a high school English teacher in New Hampshire.

In his free time, Pfeifle plays in a bluegrass band, serves on the local Little League board, writes scathing letters to the editor of the local paper and enjoys spending time with his wife and two children in Maine.

Lily Khairi, Head of Legal, Shell Malaysia

Lily Rozita Khairi is currently the Head of Legal  for Shell Malaysia and the  Managing Counsel for its Downstream, Gas and Power and Shared Services Units.

She has been with Shell for 18 years in a wide array of legal portfolios -  Upstream, Downstream, Gas and Power and Corporate. Her area of specialization includes commercial negotiations and Decommissioning of Upstream Installations. In the last couple of years, she has held various external and/or leadership positions - Deputy President of the Malaysian Corporate Counsel Association (2008-2010), Shell Women Action Network (SWAN) President  (2010-2012), secondment to the Talent Corporation lab and Shell Legal rep to the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce.

She read law at Cardiff Law School, Wales and holds a Diploma in Human Resource Management from the Malaysian Institute of Personnel Management.

Abu Bakar Munir, Professor of Law, University of Malaya, Data Protection Consultant to the Governments of Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Turkey 

Abu Bakar Munir is an internationally renowned scholar, expert and consultant on ICT Law and Data Protection law. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya, Malaysia. Currently, he is a Professor of law at the Faculty and Associate Fellow at the University of Malaya Malaysian Centre for Regulatory Studies (UMCoRS).  He is also a Visiting Professor at several universities in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East and Europe and legal Advisor to Straits Interactive Pte Ltd Singapore.

Professor Abu Bakar is the author of several books; Privatization (1992), Cyberlaw: Policies and Challenges (1999), Privacy and Data Protection (2002), Internet Banking: Law and Practice (2004), and Information and Communication Technology Law: State, Internet and Information (2010). His most recent work; Personal Data Protection in Malaysia:  Law and Practice (2010) is the must-read book that provides guidance as to how to comply with the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) 2010. He has widely published articles on several aspects of ICT law and data protection law. His latest book, “Data Protection Law in Asia” by Thomson Reuters (Hong Kong) was published in December 2014.

He speaks extensively at workshops, seminars and conferences within Malaysia and around the world including those organized/hosted by universities such as NUS, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, etc. In September 2011, he was invited to speak at the 102nd of the Society of Legal Scholars Conference hosted by the Downing College, University of Cambridge.  In November 2012, he spoke at the IAPP Europe Data Protection Congress in Brussels and subsequently at the University of Oxford.

Professor Abu Bakar Munir has been far and wide consulted by the governments and private entities around the globe. He was appointed the Adviser to the Government of Malaysia on data protection in 2007 and was instrumental in the crafting and passing of the PDPA 2010. He is the consultant to Governments of Indonesia and Saudi Arabia on data protection. Recently, the Turkish Government seeks his expert opinion on the draft regulation on data protection for the health sector.

In 1999,  Professor Abu Bakar was seconded as the IT Law Adviser and Principal Consultant to the Government of Dubai, UEA where he led an international team of consultants in developing and drafting several IT legislation to facilitate the Dubai Internet City, a multi-billion dollar IT project. He was a Council Member of the Asia Pacific Privacy Charter Council (APPCC) and the recipient of the Malaysia Cyber Security Awards (Minister’s Award) 2010 the Malaysia Cyber Security, (Information Security Visionary of the Year) Award 2010. His other areas of specialization include the Air and Space Law, Nanotechnology Law and Policy, and Renewable Energy Law and Policy.

Annelies Moens, Co-Founder and former President, International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) Australia; former Deputy Director, Compliance, Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner Australia; Head of Sales & Operations, Information Integrity Solutions (IIS)

Annelies Moens is Head of Sales and Operations at Information Integrity Solutions Pty Ltd (IIS), a global data protection and privacy consultancy that helps private and public sector entities build trust with their customers.  Annelies is responsible for driving global business growth and managing company operations. She provides strategic privacy advice and engages with clients to deliver a privacy suite of services.

Annelies is Past President of the International Association of Privacy Professionals in Australia and New Zealand which she co-founded in 2008 as a membership body to serve privacy professionals in the region. Over the last 15 years she has held senior leadership roles, including as a Chief Privacy Officer and Deputy Director at the Australian privacy regulator.

She has an MBA in general international management (with distinction) from the Vlerick Business School in Belgium, is a qualified lawyer and has degrees in computer science and law (first class honours) from the University of Queensland in Australia. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional.

Victor Tan Hock Kim, Assistant Professor, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman

Victor Tan is currently with Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, where he heads the department of Computer Science. His main research interests are in the area of distributed computing, security and big data. He has being involved in several joint industry-consultancy projects on security applications, one of which garnered the APICTA merit award. Prior to this, he worked as a research fellow at the University of Southampton UK on an EU-funded project on security in provenance systems.

Suresh Ramasamy, Privacy Officer and Principal Strategist, DiGi Telecommunications

Suresh Ramasamy is currently working with DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd as the Privacy Officer/Principal for the Technology Division. He is responsible in producing long term strategy and technology direction, looking into specifics for the areas of Information Security. His role of Privacy Officer spearheads the implementation of Privacy and PDPA, as well as Human Rights requirements for the organizations. Suresh is actively involved in the regulatory space with MCMC, being one of the veteran who understands the evolution of the Malaysian telecommunications over a decade.

Suresh has over 15 telecommunications/ISP years working experience, attached to some of the industry movers and shakers such as Maxis and Motorola. While in Maxis, Suresh was the Head of Security Operations, managing Information Security operations for the company. Suresh was also managing the ISP Data Center while working with Time dotNet Berhad. Suresh graduated from Campbell University, North Carolina USA. 

Thavakumar Kandiahpillai, Vice-President, Legal, Sapura Kencana Petroleum, President, Malaysian Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA)

Thavakumar obtained his LLB (Honours) from University of London in 1989 and was admitted to the English Bar at Middle Temple in 1990.  He then went on to obtain his LLM from University Of London and was admitted to the Malaysian Bar.  He also became a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Thavakumar practiced in Kuala Lumpur as an Advocate & Solicitor becoming a partner in 1998.  He then joined Shell Malaysia in KL in 2000 as Senior Counsel. He has held various positions including Head of Legal at Shell Malaysia Exploration & Production and was appointed General Counsel of Shell Malaysia in August 2006.

He was elected as President of the Malaysian Corporate Counsel Association in 2011 and now works at Sapura Kencana Petroleum Berhad as VP Legal Affairs. 

Dr. Sonny Zulhuda, Assistant Professor, Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws, International Islamic University Malaysia

Sonny Zulhuda holds a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in information security law and data protection from the International Islamic University Malaysia where he is currently attached to as an Assistant Professor. He is a web-science Summer Doctoral Programme fellow from the University of Oxford, UK and a two-time fellow of the US-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). He is an Advocate Member for ISACA Chapter Malaysia, an association of IT system auditors and security professionals and sits in its Working Group for Data Protection.

Dr. Sonny has trained and advised government and industry on personal data protection law including some government ministries, a national airline carrier, banks, telecommunication companies, national utility provider, healthcare services, as well as legal and accounting professional associations. Dr. Sonny helped the Government of Malaysia in formulating the National Cyber Security Policy (NCSP) back in 2005 and recently assisted Malaysia’s Personal Data Protection (PDP) Department on the PDPA training programme. Dr. Sonny teaches cyber law at the International Islamic University Malaysia and occasionally blogs at http://sonnyzulhuda.com.  

Tharishni Arumugam, Regional Privacy Counsel, Aon Asia

Tharishni Arumugam is the Regional Privacy Counsel for Asia Pacific at Aon, where she oversees data privacy issues across all of the Aon Group’s business lines within the region. Currently based in Singapore, Tharishni’s background in data privacy began in private legal practice in one of Kuala Lumpur’s largest law firms, where she advised a wide variety of clients on data privacy compliance issues, and has written internationally-published articles and conducted workshops and seminars on issues relating to Malaysia’s Personal Data Protection Act 2010. She has also been listed as one of DataGuidance’s Global Contributors.

Punitha Kandiah, Head, Corporate Advisory/Group Legal Policy, Commercial Banking & Corporate Functions, Group Legal, Maybank

Punitha Kandiah is a Senior Legal Counsel with the Commercial Banking & Corporate Functions, Group Legal, Malayan Banking Berhad (“Maybank”) and is currently heading its Corporate Advisory/ Group Legal Policy unit. She graduated with a L.L.B (Hons) from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom and started her legal career in 1994 as a Legal Assistant with Messrs Shook Lin & Bok, handling corporate, conveyancing and banking law matters. She joined Group Legal, Maybank in year 2000 and prior to that she was a Legal Counsel with Southern Bank Berhad.

Cynthia Leow, Head, Group Compliance Strategy, Group Risk – Compliance, Maybank

Cynthia Leow is currently the Head of Group Compliance Strategy, Group Risk-Compliance at Malayan Banking Berhad ("Maybank").  She has 14 years of experience in Credit Risk Management before moving on to Group Compliance to take up the role of being a Project Manager for the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 ("PDPA") for Maybank Group.  She worked closely with the Maybank Group Legal team to formulate the Maybank Group PDPA Policy as well as implementing all the requirements of PDPA.  She is representing Maybank Group in the PDPA Data User Forum Working Group for the Banking Industry under the Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM), formulating the Personal Data Protection Code of Practice for the Banking and Financial Sector.  She is also supporting the Head of Group Risk-Compliance in her capacity as the Chief Privacy Officer of Maybank Group.  

Chee Wan Law, Manager, Technical, Trend Micro Malaysia

Law Chee Wan has more than 20 years of experience in IT, as a Solution Architect, Security Threat specialist and Risk Consulting; with diverse experience in IT Infrastructure, implementation, data centre operations and Security.  He has in-depth knowledge of Enterprise Security Threat and Data Protection, IT service management and IT resource management, and has served customers from various industries ranging from oil & gas, banking, insurance, education, government, and telecommunications. 

Noriswadi Ismail, Global Data Protection and Privacy Specialist, Member, European Privacy Association’s Policy and Scientific Committee

Noris leads data protection & privacy consultation, conducts training and capacity building engagement across diversified industries and stakeholders. Noris travels and manages data protection & privacy consulting roles and training projects between Kuala Lumpur (40%), London (40%), Brussels (10%) and Singapore (10%) extensively. Noris has more than 7 years of Post Qualifying Experience (PQE) in data protection and privacy and more than 8 years of risk management, corporate counsel and compliance PQE roles. Noris is a valued contributor of Data guidance for Malaysia and ASEAN and on 28th December 2012, recognised as the then Privacy by Design Ambassador by the then Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Dr. Ann Cavoukian.

He is the lead editor of “Beyond Data Protection, Strategic Case Studies and Practical Guidance,” Springer, 2013 and the sole author of “Understanding Personal Data Protection Law”, LexisNexis, 2013. Noris holds the prestigious United Kingdom (UK) Practitioner Certificate in Data Protection, the first Malaysian and ASEAN professional qualified to practice data protection in the UK. Noris is also the alumni of 3 global prestigious scholarship schemes: The British Chevening Scholarship; The US Fulbright Professional Exchange Scholarship and the Japanese Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship.

As a result of the 3-month Fulbright Professional Exchange Program in New York City and Washington D.C, Noris is in the midst of completing a White Paper on: “Empowering Freedom of Information and Data Privacy in Malaysia”, to be presented before the Malaysian Personal Data Protection Commissioner and relevant stakeholders in Malaysia. He is also completing his third Data Protection practice-based book: Global Data Protection Handbook, co-authored with a renowned business coach, based in London (to be published by LexisNexis Malaysia, Quarter 3 of 2015). Noris penned his PhD thesis titled: “Global Data Transfer: Guidance for Malaysia and Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Observations and Ways Forward”.

On 26 March 2015, Noris has been appointed as DataGuidance Regional Partner for Asia Pacific, based in London. Prior to that, on 15 December 2014, Noris was appointed as a member of the European Privacy Association’s Policy and Scientific Committee, based in Brussels.