About the IAPP

Joao is Willis Towers Watson Chief Privacy Officer (Global). In 2019, he was also appointed a member of the Consultative Expert Group on Digital Ethics in Insurance of the EIOPA (European Union Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority).

Joao is a member of the European Advisory Board of the IAPP and a co-author of the book "Privacy Program Management: Tools for Managing Privacy Within Your Organization’  used as the main foundation training material for all the CIPP/M certifications.

He is a keynote speaker at universities, the UK Parliament and several privacy symposiums and, in 2018, he was awarded with the Data Leader Award on Data Protection and Information Management by the Information Age Magazine.

At Willis Towers Watson, Joao established a global Privacy Office, a team of privacy legal counsels and country data protection officers, whom, in partnership with privacy champions in business, are responsible for making of privacy a true business enabler. Joao serves as the strategic legal advisor to most senior heads of business and corporate functions (in particular Office of the General Counsel, Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Data Officer) on all privacy matters. Willis Towers Watson is a leading global advisory, brooking and solutions company with more than 43,000 employees and serving more than 140 countries.

Before joining Willis Towers Watson, Joao was HCL Technologies Chief Privacy Officer, Associate Vice President Risk and Compliance. Joao also practiced as an attorney in law firms and as a legal counsel at Celgene (Switzerland), IBM (Ireland), the European Medicines Agency (London) and the Portuguese Ministry of Health (Lisbon). 

Joao is a CIPP/US and CIPP/E and has postgraduate qualifications in IP and Pharma Law.