Chris Foreman

Fellow, Centre for Information Privacy Leadership and Former Chief Privacy Officer at Merck & Co.

Speaker

Chris has nearly 30 years’ experience in global privacy, cybersecurity, data governance, trademark infringement litigtion, and EU pharmaceutical law.

Chris is currently a Fellow at the Centre for Information Privacy Leadership, focusing on privacy issues relevant to the healthcare sector. Previously, he was the Chief Privacy Officer at Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA (known as “MSD” outside of the US and Canada), retiring last Summer. Heading the Global Privacy Office, Chris led a team responsible for the governance of the Global Privacy Program, which has approved EU Binding Corporate Rules. Prior to working in privacy, he held several leading roles in MSD’s Office of the General Counsel and worked as a corporate lawyer at two private law firms in Washington, DC, New York and Brussels.

Chris has served on a number of external boards, including the Information Accountability Foundation, dplegal, and the International Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Privacy Consortium. He was an active member of the EFPIA Data Governance Working Group, helping to draft its EU Code of Conduct on Scientific Research and Pharmacovigilance Reporting.

Chris has spoken widely at privacy and legal conferences, webinars and roundtables on topics such as the complexities of international data transfers between the Europe and the United States and the European Health Data Space. In addition, he was a faculty member at the University of Georgia Law School teaching Comparative Privacy Law.

He is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/E), Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) and Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP).