Our Team
Larry Ponemon, Ph.D., Chairman and Founder, CIPP
Dr. Larry Ponemon is the Chairman and Founder of the Ponemon Institute, a research “think tank” dedicated to advancing privacy and data protection practices. Dr. Ponemon is considered a pioneer in privacy auditing and the Responsible Information Management or RIM framework.
Ponemon Institute conducts independent research, educates leaders from the private and public sectors and verifies the privacy and data protection practices of organizations in a various industries. In addition to Institute activities, Dr. Ponemon is an adjunct professor for ethics and privacy at Carnegie Mellon University’s CIO Institute. He is a Fellow of the Center for Government Innovation of the Unisys Corporation.
Dr. Ponemon consults with leading multinational organizations on global privacy management programs. He has extensive knowledge of regulatory frameworks for managing privacy and data security including financial services, health care, pharmaceutical, telecom and Internet. Dr. Ponemon was appointed to the Advisory Committee for Online Access & Security for the United States Federal Trade Commission. He was appointed by the White House to the Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee for the Department of Homeland Security. Dr. Ponemon was also an appointed to two California State task forces on privacy and data security laws.
Dr. Ponemon is a member of the National Board of Advisors of the Eller College of Business and Public Administration, University of Arizona. He serves as Chairman of the Government Policy Advisory Committee and Co-Chair of the Internet Task Force for the Council of American Survey and Research Organizations (CASRO).
Dr. Ponemon was a senior partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he founded the firm’s global compliance risk management group. Prior to joining Price Waterhouse as a partner, Dr. Ponemon served as the National Director of Business Ethics Services for KPMG Peat Marwick, and was appointed Executive Director of the KPMG Business Ethics Institute.
Dr. Ponemon has held chaired (tenured) faculty positions and published numerous articles and learned books. He has presented hundreds of keynote speeches or learned presentations at national or international conferences on privacy, data protection, information security, corporate governance, and responsible information management. Dr. Ponemon is an active member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, serving as founding member of the Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP) Advisory Board.
Dr. Ponemon is column editor for Computerworld, CSO Magazine, BNA, Dark Reading and other leading publications. He is a frequent commentator on privacy and business ethics for CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Financial Times, Business 2.0, Newsweek, Business Week, U.S. News & World Report, CIO Magazine, Industry Standard, Boston Globe, InfoWorld, InformationWeek, Forbes, Fortune, CFO Magazine, Red Herring, Dow Jones News and others.
Dr. Ponemon earned his Ph.D. at Union College in Schenectady, New York. He has a Master’s degree from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and attended the doctoral program in system sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Ponemon earned his Bachelors with Highest Distinction from the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Information Privacy Professional.
Dr. Ponemon is a veteran (Vietnam War era) of the United States Navy. He is married and has two sons. Dr. Ponemon is an instrument rated private pilot.
Susan Jayson, Executive Director and Co-Founder
Susan Jayson is the executive director and co-founder of Ponemon Institute. Previously, Jayson was an investor relations and communications specialist with The Financial Relations Board (FRB) in New York and Qorvis Communications in Washington D.C. In that role, she provided companies with guidance on analyst relations and the execution of strategic communications programs. Prior to joining FRB, Jayson was a consultant with Arthur Anderson in the firm’s ethical consulting group.
Jayson has more than 20 years experience in financial communications and was the technical editor of Management Accounting magazine for more than 10 years.
Mike Spinney, Senior Privacy Analyst , CIPP
Mike Spinney is a senior privacy analyst with the Ponemon Institute, a research organization dedicated to advancing responsible information and privacy management practices in business and government. He works closely with founder Dr. Larry Ponemon to develop a better understanding of and new approaches to responsible information management. Spinney serves on the Ponemon Institute’s RIM Council and is a frequent author and speaker on data privacy issues.
Spinney’s work on privacy has appeared in Privacy Advisor, 1to1: Privacy, RFID Journal, CSO,
Computerworld, and other industry publications, and he has addressed audiences including the Privacy Summit, Secure Boston, Secure Chicago, IAPP/ISC(2) Security Series, INTERPHEX, and SecureWorld. He is a frequent media resource on privacy issues and has been quoted extensively by such media as the San Francisco Chronicle, BBC, Inc. Technology, Popular Science, American Medical News, Security Management, IDG News Service, SC Magazine, and many more.
Spinney, a certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP), is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, was editor of the association’s newsletter from 2003 – 2005, and serves as co-chair of the IAPP’s Boston KnowledgeNet chapter. His blog, Private Communications, addresses current privacy-related events.
In addition to his work with the Ponemon Institute, Spinney is a strategic communications consultant, operating as SixWeight, with more than fifteen years’ experience providing media-savvy communications counsel to business organizations from startups to stalwarts. He is a member of the Merrimack Valley Venture Forum and occasionally a freelance writer, with bylines in Inc., Cigar Aficionado, Robb Report, Tide, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Washington Times. He writes a column on faith and politics for Spot-On.com. Follow him as spinzo on Twitter.
John P. Wendell, Chief Statistician
John P. Wendell is Professor of Accountancy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where he teaches, among other topics, Auditing and Accounting Information Systems. In addition to teaching in Hawai‘i he has taught in Sweden and Vietnam.
John’s professional experience includes work as a Certified Public Accountant, an auditor for the New York State Comptroller and as the Statistician for the General Electric Corporate Audit Staff. He earned his Ph.D. in Administrative and Engineering Systems from Union University’s Graduate Management Institute for his dissertation on using computer modeling to evaluate audit risk.
John’s research has been published in the leading accounting and statistics journals including Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, Behavioral Research in Accounting, Journal of the American Statistical Association, and The American Statistician. In addition to his teaching and research duties with the University he provides consulting services to a wide variety of organizations including accounting firms, government, labor unions and not-for-profit entities.
