Kirk Herath was recently appointed as the State of Ohio’s first Cybersecurity Strategic Advisor by Governor Mike DeWine. Prior to his appointment, he was a Principal with Pillars Consulting Group. He recently retired as Vice-President, Associate General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer for Nationwide Insurance Companies and affiliates based in Columbus, Ohio.

For over two decades, Herath was responsible for all legal issues at a Fortune 100 financial services company impacting various cybersecurity matters. He was responsible for corporate privacy policy, data and security incident management and implementing privacy across all lines of business. Herath has represented clients on many industry privacy and Cybersecurity policy groups and before legislative and regulatory bodies.

Currently, Herath is Chairman of CyberOhio, Ohio’s Cybersecurity Advisory Board, and a member of the InnovateOhio Advisory Board under the direction of Lt. Governor Jon Husted and Governor Mike DeWine. He is Past President and past board member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals and is still active within the association. He also served on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee from 2005 to 2011. Herath edited the privacy practitioners’ bible, “How to Build a Privacy Program”, published by the IAPP Press.