Emma has worked in data protection for over 25 years. Starting her career as a data protection officer in the public sector, she moved to work in the regulatory office for Jersey, Channel Islands, in 2002.

Since then, she has been Commissioner for Jersey and, fom 2018, for the Bailiwick of Guernsey where she worked with a team responsible for implementation, oversight, and adequacy assessment for the GDPR- standard legal famework for the Islands.

Her fixed term in that role finished in December 2023. In January 2024, Emma was appointed as Chief Commissioner for the Data and Marketing Commission. She also has a small portfolio of work acting in an advisory role and is a charity trustee.

In March 2024, Emma was chosen to lead the Independent Review into the use of mobile messaging apps in Scottish Government.

Georgina is the Data Protection Officer at Inspired Thinking Group and also chair of IRMS - Information and Records Management Society North group.

At the time of recording episode 11, Georgina was Data Governance Manager at the charity, TREAT-NMD. 

Jen is the Director of Defend Digital Me,  a not-for- profit organisation that advocates for children’s privacy and digital rights in UK education and the wider public sector

She currently contributes to the Council of Europe digital citizenship working group on AI and education, which published a critical report on the human rights, democracy, and rule of law implications of AI in education in 2022. As a member of the European Commission Special Group on Code of Conduct for age-appropriate design, she is also interested in the intersection between technology, identity and privacy. 

Jen has authored and co-authored multiple publications on the state of data, biometrics, and data policy in the UK education sector, which are available at defenddigitalme.org/research.

Jon Baines is a Senior Data Protection Specialist at Mishcon de Reya LLP where he advises on complex data protection and FOI matters. Jon isn’t a lawyer in the traditional sense yet is listed in Legal 500 as a “Rising Star” in the Data Protection, Privacy and Cybersecurity category. Jon is the long-standing chair of the National Association of Data Protection (NADPO) and Freedom of Information Officers.

Lynn Wyeth is a former Head of the Information Governance and Data Protection Officer of a large unitary public authority and has over 20 years' experience as an information rights practitioner. She holds a post graduate diploma in Information Rights, BCS in Freedom of Information and Data Protection, the CISMP certificate, and is an accredited HSCIPP privacy practitioner. She is currently the Digital Officer for the National Association of Data Protection and Freedom of Information Officers (NADPO), and a board member for the national Campaign for Freedom of Information.

Lynn is the author of 2 books, A Practical Guide to Handling Freedom of Information Requests, and Data Protection: Compliance in Practice. She also advised the Government of Jersey on the implementation of FOI legislation.

Martin spent 16 years at the BBC as the organisation’s leading specialist in using FOI for journalism. Over that time, he broke major stories, trained reporters, and took cases all the way to tribunal hearings. His investigations have covered everything from private conversations between Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, to the policing of Greenham Common protests, to the flaws in the honours system.

Martin is also the author of Freedom of Information: A Practical Guidebook - a comprehensive, hands-on guide that explains the law, the process, and the tactics for using FOI effectively.

Maurice Frankel has worked for the Campaign since it was set up in 1984 and has been its Director since 1987. He previously worked on access to environmental and safety information issues for the corporate accountability group Social Audit. He drafted the successful Private Members’ Bills which became the Access to Personal Files Act 1987, the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988, the Environment and Safety Information Act 1988 and the Access to Health Records Act 1990. He was a member of the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Group on Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act and the Commonwealth Group of Experts whose Freedom of Information Principles were adopted by Commonwealth Law Ministers in 1999. He received an OBE for services to open government in 2004.

Naomi is a lawyer who specialises in Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Surveillance Law. Naomi has worked as a defence solicitor in private practice and as a prosecutor for the local authority in a range of regulatory matters including Trading Standards, Health and Safety and Environmental prosecutions. Naomi has higher rights of audience to present cases in the Crown Court.

Olu Odeniyi is a Cyber Security, Information Security and Digital Transformation Trusted Advisor who has 30 years' experience helping organisations maximise gain from technology solutions, including optimisation of business operations and processes. During this time, Olu held several key senior leadership, strategic and operational positions, in the public and private sectors. As a former trustee of three charities Olu held the roles of Technical lead, Treasurer and Chair, where he was responsible for regulatory compliance, operational and project risk management.

Raz has worked in NHS as a DPO for over 11 years and currently works for a large NHS trust that supports acute, community, primary care & research. Prior to the NHS, Raz worked in Local authority in same role for 6 years, so has plenty of public sector experience.

Currently, Raz is the Chair of the National Strategic Information Governance Network (SIGN), which has 24 regional networks across England and Wales, and also regional chair of the West Midlands SIGN.

Raz is also a member of the Upper Tribunal assigned to the Administrative Appeals Chamber (Information Rights Jurisdiction and First Tier Tribunal General Regulatory Chamber (Information Rights Jurisdiction).

Tahir Latif is a distinguished expert on building responsible and transparent AI systems. He is the Global Practice Lead for Data Privacy & Responsible AI at Cognizant, one of the largest global professional services companies. Tahir has led complex privacy and AI programmes across multiple industry sectors both in the UK and globally. He is also the Chief AI and Governance Officer and board member at the Ethical AI Alliance, a not for profit body which promotes ethical standards in AI development. Tahir is the co-author of Data Privacy – A Practical Handbook on Governance and Operation.