Kirk Herath is Vice-President, Associate General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer for Nationwide Insurance Companies and affiliates based in Columbus, Ohio.
His practice group (Office of Privacy, Technology, Information and Contract Services – OPTICS) is responsible for all legal issues impacting privacy, information security, technology and information systems, contracts and supply services management, confidentiality and data integrity. Among other things, he heads up a team that has primary responsibility for corporate privacy policy, data privacy and security incident management and implementing privacy across all lines of business. He represents Nationwide’s interests on many industry and business privacy groups and before legislative and regulatory bodies.
Under Herath's leadership, Nationwide has been selected as one of the Top 10 Most Trusted Companies for Privacy (number one in the insurance sector) six times by the Ponemon Institute.
Currently he is Chairman of CyberOhio, Ohio’s Cybersecurity Advisory Board, and a member of the newly formed InnovateOhio Advisory Board under the direction of Lt. Governor Jon Husted and Governor Mike DeWine. He is Past President and past member of the board of the International Association of Privacy Professionals and is still very 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. He speaks regularly on a broad array of privacy, security and technology issues.
Herath edited the privacy practitioners’ bible, “How to Build a Privacy Program”, published by the IAPP Press.
He received undergraduate degrees in political science and history from the University of Cincinnati and has a master’s degree in international affairs from the American University in Washington, D.C. He holds a law degree from Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio, and is admitted to the Ohio Bar. Herath is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional and a Certified Information Privacy Professional/Government.