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.