Nuala O'Connor

Nuala leads CDT, a global nonprofit committed to advancing our digital rights. She is a vocal advocate for harnessing the potential of the internet and emerging technologies to increase equality, amplify voices, and promote human rights. At CDT, Nuala is part of a diverse team that is driving policy solutions that advance the rights of the individual in the digital age. Her experience working in the federal government, multinational corporations, tech start-ups, and noted law firms informs her innovative and collaborative leadership approach.

Nuala has had a diverse career, the spanning government, industry, law, and nonprofit sectors. She is known for her service as the first statutorily appointed Chief Privacy Officer in any federal agency, having served at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She also held senior roles at the US Technology Administration and the US Department of Commerce. In the private sector, she was part of a team brought in to create privacy compliance structures at the ad firm DoubleClick, and has served as global privacy leader at General Electric and VP-customer trust at Amazon, among other positions. She has practiced law at Venable, Sidley, and Hudson Cook.

Nuala was born in Northern Ireland and has been both a green card holder and a naturalized citizen in the US; those experiences have impacted her advocacy on the relationship between self and state. She is a proud mom to three small humans and one large dog, and can be found online in many places, including on Medium and on Twitter, where you can follow her @privacymama or CDT's @cendemtech.