Tim de Sousa

Tim de Sousa is a strategic and operational privacy expert with more than 19 years of professional experience. Tim works at the intersection of privacy, information governance, emerging technologies and digital transformation in both the public and private sectors. His expertise spans Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and the European Union.

Tim supports corporate and government clients in establishing and optimising their privacy compliance and information governance postures, enabling effective digital transformation and building trusted relationships with their customers. This includes the provision of practical policy advice, governance and compliance management strategy, regulator and stakeholder management, data breach response and education and training to enable best practice privacy and information governance.

Tim combines a deep understanding of regulatory frameworks and approaches stemming from his direct experience as a regulator, and extensive practical privacy, information governance and digital transformation experience in the corporate and public sectors. He is a frequent writer and speaker on privacy and digital transformation issues. Tim holds an LL.B. with Honours from Macquarie University.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Tim held senior roles with Westpac, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the New South Wales (“NSW”) Government Department of Customer Service and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (“OAIC”) in addition to consulting major Australian corporates including Qantas and nbn Co. In 2020, Tim was listed in the Apolitical/World Economic Forum’s “Agile 50” as one of the “World’s 50 Most Influential People Revolutionising Government” and recommended as a Data Expert by Who’s Who Legal.

Relevant Experience:

• Led the world-first cost benefit analysis of Rules as Code digital transformation approaches for an Australian state government
• Established and led Australia’s first whole of government human-centred policy lab, NSW Government Policy Lab, focused on emerging technologies and digital systems and services
• Built and led the team responsible for the OAIC’s online privacy and technology policy portfolio, data breach investigations, and Commissioner-initiated investigations of privacy breaches
• Led the development of expert cybersecurity and risk management evidence for the defence in ASIC v. RI Advice (2022)
• Co-author with TJ Harrop of “What Privacy Pros Can Learn from Service Design,” published June 2020 in UX Magazine and The Mandarin
• Co-author with Pia Andrews of “We Need to Recode the Rules of Government,” published October 2019 in Apolitical and The Mandarin