Karen Zacharia

Karen Zacharia is the Program Director for the Chief Privacy Officers Council of The Conference Board. Karen was Verizon's Chief Privacy Officer from 2011—2021. In that capacity, Karen contributed significantly to the building of the Verizon Privacy Office, a centralized department responsible for privacy and information security programs enterprise wide. The Privacy Office oversaw compliance with privacy laws, maintained and updated Verizon’s privacy policies, counseled on internal and external privacy principles and requirements, and provided training to employees on existing and new privacy and security laws and Verizon policies, among other functions. The Privacy Office also spent a significant amount of time focusing on core privacy commitments like transparency and choice so that customers could make meaningful choices when it comes to their personal information. Finally, the Privacy Office played a central role in Verizon’s policy initiatives in the privacy area.

Karen joined Bell Atlantic, one of Verizon’s predecessor companies, in 1994 and held a number of positions of increasing responsibility in the legal department. From August 2000 through May 2011, Karen was Vice President and Associate General Counsel—Federal Regulatory, and prior to August 2000, Karen was in the state regulatory group.

Prior to joining Verizon, Karen was an associate at Williams & Connolly in Washington DC, focusing on litigation. Karen clerked for Judge William A. Norris, United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit in Los Angeles, California, prior to joining Williams & Connolly. Karen received her law degree from Stanford Law School and her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania.