About the IAPP

Clarissa Benavides is Managing Counsel of Privacy and Cybersecurity for Toyota Financial Services (TFS). She serves as the privacy legal lead for the implementation of the State Privacy Regulations across the TFS enterprise. In this role, she provides legal support by engaging stakeholders, interpreting the various state regulations, and providing guidance on best practices. Additionally, she is responsible for negotiating data privacy provisions for all TFS and Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) agreements as well as provides legal guidance to TFS’ Strategic Innovative business unit. 

Prior to joining TFS, as Director of Privacy and Regulatory Counsel, she established a privacy framework to address GDPR/CCPA and led the global data privacy program across Flowserve’s 50+ country footprint. Furthermore, as Director of Compliance, she built from scratch and oversaw the compliance program for AT&T Mexico (wireless affiliate) and AT&T Xander (digital advertising affiliate). 

Throughout her career, Clarissa has demonstrated a passion to serve her community by holding different leadership positions in several non-profit organizations and by mentoring women in the corporate setting. She graduated from St. Mary’s University School of Law and is licensed to practice law in Texas. In addition, Clarissa holds several certifications, such as a CIPP-US and CIPM Privacy certification by the International Association of Privacy Professionals and a CCEP Compliance and Ethics certification for both US and International. In August of 2017, she graduated from SMU’s Corporate Executive Development Program.