Nuala O'Connor

Nuala O'Connor is the Senior Vice President and Chief Counsel, Digital Citizenship at Walmart. She oversees the Digital Citizenship team responsible for providing advice across the company on issues related to privacy, use of data and data governance, use of emerging technologies, cybersecurity, and records management. Nuala is a member of the President's Inclusion Council, which focuses on advising, collaborating, and inspiring on issues and enterprise efforts to promote inclusive environments. Before joining Walmart, she served as the President and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a global nonprofit focused on digital civil liberties. In the private sector, Nuala served as both Vice President of Compliance and Customer Trust and Associate General Counsel for Privacy and Data Protection at Amazon, was the Chief Privacy Leader at General Electric, and held both privacy leadership and legal counsel roles at DoubleClick. In the public sector, Nuala served as the first Chief Privacy Officer at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) where she founded the DHS privacy office and was responsible for groundbreaking policy development on the use and protection of personal information in national security and law enforcement settings. Also in government service, Nuala served as deputy director of the Office of Policy and Strategic Planning, and later as Chief Counsel for Technology at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Nuala began her legal career in private practice at Sidley Austin, Venable, and Hudson Cook. Nuala holds a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University, a Master of Education from Harvard University, and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center.