OUR EXECUTIVE TEAM
Michael Cox
Michael Cox is president and founder of SoCal Privacy Consultants, which conducts gap assessments and establishes lean, sustainable and legally defensible privacy and security programs. Clients include private and public customer-centric organizations. Gap assessments can be performed for partners, service providers, and M&A buyers and sellers. Strategies are developed using a risk-based approach. SoCal Privacy obtains executive commitment; operationalizes governance with clear roles and responsibilities; develops policies; conducts training; and advises on implementation. Along the way, an effective transfer of knowledge and tools are provided. For an FTC consent order client, he established multi-state information security programs and provides ongoing consulting - resulting in three consecutive satisfactory audits certifying compliance to the order.
Previously, Michael served as the Chief Privacy Officer for an international genetics testing laboratory for almost seven years, as Enterprise Risk Manager for a subsidiary of Capital One, and as Vice President for financial service companies and banks. He is passionate about the value of leveraging enterprise risk management to achieve legal defensibility. He is a frequent speaker on privacy and security subjects, including privacy/security-by-design, cloud computing, Internet of Things, and HIPAA. He co-authored the security chapter for the HIMSS Good Informatics (GIP) book. Michael is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP), member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), member of the IAPP privacy professional faculty, and a leader of a Lares Institute privacy think-tank. He has a B.S. in Business Administration from Virginia Tech.
Eric Schaleger
CISSP
Eric is Chief Security Consultant at SoCal Privacy Consultants. While mastering diverse roles over his 20+ years in information security, risk assessment, and information technology, he has accumulated extensive knowledge from his experience across countless domains, technologies and projects during his tenure with several prominent San Diego companies . Eric left the corporate world in 2019 to focus his energy on clients often underrepresented by information security expertise. His ability to adapt to dynamic environments, technologies, industries, and concepts is well suited to maximizing the value he brings to his clients. Eric is a proponent for a holistic approach to enterprise security through the understanding of business goals, challenges and risks, leading to tailored strategies for security advancement.
Eric is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and holds a BA in Zoology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
SoCal Privacy has been helping companies build privacy and security programs since 2008. SoCal Privacy developed time-tested processes to ensure companies are given the right education and the tools to establish, maintain and enhance privacy and security programs over time.