Called the "dean of corporate privacy officers" by Inter@ctive Week Magazine, Ray Everett-Church is an internationally recognized expert on privacy law and Internet-related public policy. Joining the infomediary firm AllAdvantage.com in 1999, he became the world's first Chief Privacy Officer, creating a position that would be hailed as one of the most important privacy developments of the year 2000. Since then, many companies – including IBM, Microsoft, Bank of America, AT&T and American Express – have followed suit, appointing their own chief privacy officers to manage their privacy issues.

Ray currently performs an array of business start-up advisory services under the auspices of his consulting firm, PrivacyClue LLC. He previously served as Director of Policy and Professional Services for Habeas (now part of ReturnPath), and Director of Privacy for Responsys. Prior to that he served as Privacy Officer and VP for Consulting at privacy and security consulting firm ePrivacy Group, where he was part of the team that built anti-spam technology company TurnTide Inc. (sold after six months to Symantec for $28 million in 2004). Prior to his work at AllAdvantage, he was an attorney with the Washington, DC-area telecommunications law firm of Haley Bader & Potts, PLC (now part of Garvey Schubert & Barer).

In recent years, he has provided consulting services to Microsoft, Intuit, Pharmacia, Coremetrics, Pfizer, Comcast, and Napster. Before practicing law, Ray worked as an independent consultant to the online services industry, advising Internet service providers such as America Online and CompuServe, numerous content providers, trade associations (including the National Association of Home Builders), and start-up ventures regarding legal, technical, and policy issues. Active in technology and privacy issues for many years, the New York Times' online edition profiled him in 1997 as one of the most influential proponents of responsible Internet commerce.

Ray is a member of the board of directors of Whitehat.com (an opt-in email marketing venture), several start-up ventures, the founding board of the Privacy Officers Association, served as co-chair of the Internet Advertising Bureau's CPO Council, and is a member of the National Advisory Council of the George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science. He also serves on the board of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, and serves on numerous corporate advisory boards.

He is a frequent commentator on legal and technology issues involving the Internet and has appeared at numerous conferences and seminars. Recent speaking engagements have included presentations before the 10th Annual Conference on Computers Freedom and Privacy, Wireless Agenda 2000, AIM Interact 2000, Spam Summit 2000, the IAB Privacy Forum, Global Privacy Summit, IMS Dallas, Internet World Fall 2000, and The Standard's IDentity Conference. He is a co-author of the books Internet Privacy for Dummies and Fighting Spam for Dummies, both from John Wiley & Sons Publishing.

He has also testified before the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, the Federal Trade Commission, and has appeared on NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, CNBC, FOX News Channel, TechTV, National Public Radio, and CBS Radio. His comments have appeared in print stories on CNN Interactive, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, Web Week, and Interactive Week.

A graduate of George Mason University, he received a law degree from the National Law Center at The George Washington University. In his spare time he is the technical administrator for the widely respected technology policy email discussion lists Cyberia-L and Cybertelecom-L. He is a member of the Maryland Bar, the American Bar Association, the Silicon Valley Privacy Roundtable, and the Sushi Cabal (TINC). He is based in San Francisco, California.

Last update: 03/03/10