Robert B. Yonaitis - Bio

Rob YonaitisRobert “Rob” Yonaitis is a Pioneer in the fields of Data Classification, Privacy Protection and Information Security. A Proven Leader, Research Scientist, and an award-winning Technologist who serves as an Advisor to Organizations, Think-Tanks and major corporations in the areas of privacy and cyber security. He has led the development of Innovating technology solutions that set and lead market direction in privacy, data protection and cyber security via standards based design. Believing strongly in giving back to the community; mentoring, open source projects, and no-cost software have been a cornerstone of his past, current projects and will be a cornerstone of his future projects.

Currently both a Law Student and a Consultant for Privacy and Cybersecurity expert, previous positions included  but are not limited to; Privacy and Governance expert at State Street Bank in Burlington MA, Privacy Protection Solution Architect at Huawei in Shenzhen, P.R. China,  Chief Research Scientist at AvePoint Inc.- as the Architect of the company’s data protection and compliance products, Rob designed and delivered solutions with a “risk-based approach” that won the company accolades and industry analyst recognition. Prior to these positions Rob was the Founder of HiSoftware, Inc., acquired by Cryptzone in 2014. At HiSoftware Rob performed many roles including CEO, CTO, and Chairman of the Board. HiSoftware provided solutions that allowed companies to manage Digital Inclusion, Privacy, and Cybersecurity of their data and content at rest, in motion and during usage.

Throughout Rob’s career, community has been a core focus of his vision. Believing that research, education and outreach are a meaningful way that a company can “give back” he focused on educational community solutions including, HiSoftware “Cynthia Says”, AvePoint’s “Compliance Detector”, and a Microsoft funded “open source” community kit for building accessible collaboration portals in SharePoint.  Yonaitis also published several books and tutorials to assist organizations in advancing standards and compliance based design, including “Understanding Accessibility”, reprinted for distribution and training by several United States federal agencies. Additionally, in 2014 Yonaitis led a team that Architected, Conceived and Delivered AvePoint’s Privacy Impact Assessment System, which is exclusively distributed by the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

Yonaitis’ technology and software innovations as well as his work in Quality Assurance have received numerous accolades and awards, including the 2002 Da Vinci award for Electronics and Information Technology Innovations that have most improved the lives of People with Disabilities, the Computer Smithsonian Award  (Mass Department of Revenue Tax Season 97’ Network, LAN/Wan), and have received recognition from industry Research firms and  analysts Gartner and Hypatia in the Data Centric Audit and Protection, Data Loss Prevention and Governance Risk and Compliance markets.

Rob has been a member and active participant in several working groups, standards organizations and advisory committees, focusing on inclusive and standards based design, data protection, privacy and security. He served as a Training Advisory Board Member for the International Association of Privacy Professionals (“IAPP”) for a two year term and has been a participant/delegate to the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) since 2010. He is a Senior Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and has been a past participant with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) working groups related to Digital Inclusion, Evaluation and Reporting and Browser Security indicators.

Rob holds a Masters in Aeronautical Science with dual specialties in Aeronautics and Space Studies from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. His Capstone was on “the value of manned space flight as related to the positive impact on all citizens”. Rob also holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science from Franklin Peirce College. Rob also holds multiple certifications including but not limited to CIPP/US, CIPT and CIPM from the International Association of Privacy Professionals: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonaitis

Certifications

Organizations

Projects of Interest

  • AvePoint Privacy Impact Assessment System - Jan 2014

    APIA is a "No Charge" Education and Public Outreach project. APIA is a technology solution that mitigates the risk inherent with manual privacy impact assessments, helping organizations understand and automate the process of evaluating, assessing, and reporting on the privacy implications of their enterprise IT systems. Comply with Privacy Regulations: Analyze how personal information is handled by enterprise IT systems to comply with global privacy legislation-mandated privacy impact assessments (PIA).

  • BeyData Librarian -Unified Risk Management System -  2016 - Present

    BeyData Librarian provides an enterprise system that allows organizations to identify, assess, prioritize, remediate, mitigate and monitor risk across the organization. BeyData Librarian is a Business Process Management solution that centralizes and automates Governance, Risk and Compliance Management for Security, Privacy, Corporate, Regulatory and Financial Risk. Whether you are an individual contributor, an auditor, or part of a team supporting an enterprise organization, Librarian’s unique, scalable, hybrid infrastructure provides a framework that allows you to build a Catalog of Assets, Records, Data Flows, Processes and People, inside and outside the organization, to map the flow of data within and between these assets, and to automate the process of risk assessment.

 

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