Mastercard promotes Louveaux to chief privacy officer as GDPR nears

Mastercard has appointed Caroline Louveaux, one of its longtime data privacy experts, to be chief privacy officer, operating from the company’s offices in Brussels.

Louveaux, who’s worked at Mastercard for more than a decade overseeing regional privacy and data protection programs internationally, Mastercard said in a Thursday press release.

In her new post Louveaux will work closely with JoAnn Stonier, who was chief privacy officer until Mastercard named her as its first chief data officer in February. Louveaux's team will work on data innovation and ensuring that privacy is embedded in all solutions that collect, use and share personal information, Mastercard said in the release.

Mastercard’s decision to base Louveaux in Brussels underscores Europe’s escalating role in driving global privacy policy and the importance of the European General Data Protection Regulation, which sets a new global standard in handling individuals’ personal information, Mastercard noted in the release.

“There has never been a greater emphasis on privacy or questions about how companies are measuring up,” said Tim Murphy, Mastercard’s general counsel, in the release.

Louveaux lectures at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management and serves as co-chair of the EU GDPR group of the Information Accountability Foundation and is a member of the GDPR Steering Committee of the Centre of Information Policy & Leadership, the release noted.