Welcome to Privacy Minds — the podcast from Achieved Compliance that unpacks the complexities, pitfalls, and strategies of data privacy and security in highly regulated global industries.
Whether you work in life sciences, finance, technology, or any sector that handles sensitive information, we’ll help you navigate the ever-changing landscape with clarity and precision.
In each episode, our experts will offer practical insights to help you manage risk, build resilient compliance programs and create secure processes that will set your organization up for success and put your mind at ease.
So, let’s get compliant.
MELISE BLAKESLEE, ESQ., CIPP/E
PRINCIPAL, PRESIDENT, CONSULTANT
Melise has over 20 years’ experience in commercializing and protecting data. She has advised numerous companies in technology and IP law as the founder of Sequel Technology Law, a Washington DC based law firm established in 2009. Previously, Melise served as the head of the Internet and IT-transactions group for the international law firm, McDermott Will & Emery. Her practice routinely involves counseling global companies, particularly in the financial and IT sectors, about data protection and compliance.
After years of counseling clients about data protection and commercialization Melise understood that small and mid tier businesses required a compliance solution tailored to their unique needs. In Achieved Compliance, Melise seeks to empower companies with an in house approach to compliance that is easy and cost effective, and offers the high-quality advice, resources and guidance she provides to her clients.
Melise is a noted authority and speaker on protection of personal data and cybercrime. Oxford University Press published her first book on cybercrime, investigation and litigation in 2015. Her second book on enforcing intellectual property and data rights, was published in April 2017 by Lexis Nexis.
PAULA BRUENING
PRINCIPAL, SENIOR DIRECTOR, GLOBAL PRIVACY POLICY
Paula brings 25 years of privacy and data protection policy development and representation expertise to her role at Achieved Compliance. Prior to coming to Achieved Compliance, Paula worked at Intel Corporation, where she was Director of Global Privacy Policy. There she developed and coordinated data protection policy across the company, focusing particularly on the European Union.
Prior to her tenure at Intel, she served as Vice President for Global Policy at the Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton & Williams LLP, a pathfinding privacy and information policy think tank located in Washington, D.C. addressing cross border data flows, emerging technologies, and cybersecurity issues. She was counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology; Senior Attorney Advisor for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the Department of Commerce; and Senior Analyst for the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment. Paula has extensive experience working on information policy issues in developing countries and with international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and APEC. She is a graduate of John Carroll University and received her law degree from Case Western Reserve University.
