Meet the Team

Daimhin is a senior privacy professional with nearly 20 years’ privacy and related experience. Daimhin loves strategic privacy engagements and reflecting on the big picture (to anyone who’ll listen, including board directors or conference attendees), but he’s also quite comfortable in the detail.

Daimhin earned his privacy stripes working with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for 7 years, ultimately managing the Commissioner’s Auckland Investigations Team. Daimhin then moved to NZ’s largest life insurer, where he created and headed a Privacy Team and programme, before joining Simply Privacy in 2015.

Daimhin holds an LLB, an LLM (Hons) in Public Law, and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/E). He’s also NZ Country Leader for the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). In 2022, the IAPP recognised Daimhin’s significant contribution to the privacy profession, designating him a Westin Emeritus Fellow.

A former lawyer, Emma is a senior privacy professional with 20+ years’ privacy and related experience. With a genuine interest in people and what makes them tick, Emma has a particular interest in privacy training and awareness.

Emma’s privacy career began at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, where she managed the Auckland Investigations Team until 2012. Emma then moved into the private sector, becoming Senior Legal Counsel (Privacy) for NZ’s biggest health insurer, Southern Cross Health Society. She joined Simply Privacy as a Director in 2019.

Emma holds a BA/LLB (Hons), the IAPP Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/E) and Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) certifications, is a LEADR trained mediator, and an IAPP Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP).

Mike is Simply Privacy’s founder and a senior privacy professional with 25+ years’ privacy and related experience. In 2015, recognising there was a gap in the market for practical advice, Mike founded Simply Privacy with the aim of truly enabling businesses to manage personal information well.

After a few years in a private law practice and as in-house counsel for local government, Mike’s first real foray into the world of privacy was as the Assistant Privacy Commissioner from 2006 until 2014. He developed and managed the Privacy Commissioner’s investigations and compliance functions and built a strong and trusted reputation within the public and private sectors. Mike has supplied strategic advice on data stewardship and privacy to a host of government agencies and corporates, including for the criminal justice sector. Most recently he was NZ Police’s Chief Privacy Officer.

Mike holds an LLB (Hons).

Kathy is our Wellington-based Principal, and has expertise in privacy, information management, IT development, and change management, making her a total asset to any project that impacts personal information.

Kathy has worked as an investigator for both the Privacy Commissioner and the Ombudsman, and has held roles at Archives NZ, including as a Senior Advisor in the Digital Sustainability Programme.

Kathy holds an LLB and BA.

Frith is a former lawyer with 20+ years’ experience advising clients in New Zealand, Australia and the UK on privacy, data and technology issues. She has a particular interest in the intersection between digital technologies, privacy and Responsible AI.

Before joining Simply Privacy, Frith was the General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer at Auror, and developed their Responsible AI framework. Before that, she led the Australian and New Zealand Digital Law teams at EY Law, supporting public and private sector organisations with privacy impact and gap assessments, internal audits, policy development and general privacy advice. Frith has also advised numerous clients on their multi-national privacy programmes across the UK, US, Europe, Australia, Canada and further afield. Before EY, Frith established Vodafone NZ’s GDPR programme and led Westpac’s Digital, Marketing and Sponsorship legal team.

Frith is on the global advisory board for the IAPP’s AI Governance Centre, the Government’s Data Ethics Advisory Group, IAPP’s ANZ Advisory Board, and the Executive Committee of the AI Forum NZ. Frith holds an LLB (Hons) and a BA in French.