Elizabeth Denham
Advisory Board Member
Elizabeth Denham
Advisory Board Member
Elizabeth Denham CBE brings extensive international regulatory expertise to Baker McKenzie. She served as the UK Information Commissioner from 2016-2021, following a decade of roles as a data protection and information rights regulator in Canada. As Information Commissioner for the UK, she built and led the largest data protection regulator in the world and Chaired the Global Privacy Assembly (international forum of data protection commissioners) from 2018-2021.
She is committed to making digital technologies and data work for the
benefit of society. Under her leadership, the ICO embarked on some of the most daunting cross-border investigations on the misuse of individuals’ data — including her investigation into political micro-targeting and election interference, data brokers and credit reporting agencies, and use of facial recognition technology by commercial firms and the police. She is passionate about the ethical and safe collection, storage and use of data. A highlight of her time at the ICO was drafting the first ‘privacy by design’ statutory Children’s Code – a set of fifteen enforceable standards to protect children’s safety and agency on- line. This Code is having global impact as technology companies and services making meaningful changes to their services to comply with the rigorous standards in the UK Code.
In the 2019 New Year’s Honours list Elizabeth was awarded a CBE for her services to protecting people’s privacy. In 2020 she received the BCS Society Medal, which recognises an outstanding individual whose work and values have helped to enhance the reputation of digital technology and its contribution to improving our lives. In 2021 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Victoria for international leadership in information rights.