About the IAPP

Ray Thomas, Jr. currently serves as Director & Senior Counsel at Walmart. He provides legal advice, counsel & subject matter expertise in Data Privacy (primary point-of-contact for Sam’s Club) and Biometrics (enterprise-wide).  

Additionally, Ray is a “Special Government Employee”. On appointment by the Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), he currently serves as a member of the Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee (DPIAC) which provides advice & counsel to the DHS Chief Privacy Officer (CPO).

Previously, Ray held various data privacy-related roles during his 7 years at IBM. For example, he served as a General Lawyer, the Chief Procurement Privacy Officer, and the Resident Subject Matter Expert at the Watson IoT Global Headquarters in Munich, Germany.

Ray holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from American University, Washington College of Law, a Juris Doctorate (JD) from Cleveland State University College of Law, and a Bachelor of Science (BS) from the State University of New York, College at Buffalo. Furthermore, he is a Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States (CIPP/US), a Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/E), a Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM), and a Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP). Ray is also licensed to practice law in Texas, Illinois, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.