Meet the team: Wendy Spires, Director of Privacy @ Trace
Hi I’m Wendy, Director of Privacy at Trace Data
Data protection is a true passion, and where I spend most of my time today. However, I retain my deep interest in the wealth management and FinTech space, having previously been Global Head of Research at a wealth management publishing house, along with working as a research and communications consultant for a variety of Financial Services (FS) institutions and organisations serving the industry.
My experience in client research, marketing and PR very much informs my data protection work, and I have been pleased to unite these two knowledge areas for the benefit of numerous organisations as they innovate in their data management and client work, balancing marketing and compliance requirements
Tell us about your role at Trace
As Director of Privacy at Trace Data, I am part of a multi-disciplinary team providing Privacy by Design, information security, data ethics and privacy engineering consultancy services to a range of consumer, technology, FS, health and third sector organisations.
Our engagements range from compliance 'sprints' for scale-ups, strategic plans, privacy tech implementation to outsourced Data Protection Officer (DPO) engagements, and everything in between. No working day is the same. The common thread is helping clients to balance their global compliance and business needs effectively, and navigating a real alphabet soup of regulations and legal regimes globally.
Why did you choose to work in Privacy?
Privacy represents the nexus of so many interlocking (and often competing) subject areas that are right on the cutting edge: technological innovation, data protection and other laws, ethics, marketing techniques and more. It is a really exciting area where you really do learn something new every day. It is also a discipline that benefits from lots of professional experience in different sectors and regions. In short, it feels like a modern, durable career path that won’t become boring or obsolete any time soon.
What might surprise people about you?
In another lifetime I was a secondary English teacher. I still love teaching, but with adults this time around! Seriously though, the whole team at Trace really enjoys the coaching and training element of our role. When people start to really ‘get’ privacy and how it’s actually a real business-builder, it is very gratifying indeed.