Nicole Stephensen is a Privacy Specialist with extensive local and international experience in operational and strategic privacy matters. She is Principal Consultant at Ground Up Consulting, a boutique firm she established in 2011.

Nicole is also the Executive Director for Privacy and Data Protection at the Internet of Things Security Institute, where she is co-author of the IoTSI Security Framework for Smart Cities and Critical Infrastructure and hosts a bi-weekly podcast, ‘Privacy Matters‘.

With nearly 20 years in the privacy profession, Nicole believes in building organisational capacity around privacy and embedding best practice into organisational culture. In her private practice, she assists government, private and not for profit sectors to unlock the strategic value of privacy and enhance community trust. She also helps to find, unpack and address privacy risk, via formal Privacy Impact Assessments and more collaborative on-site reviews of policies, processes and ‘on the ground’ handling of personal information. In consultation with her clients, she develops and delivers bespoke training for staff and executive levels.