Meredith Corporation Names Farah Zaman Chief Privacy Officer.

A longtime data privacy lawyer is moving from the consumer retail industry to media.

Meredith Corp., a publicly traded, family-controlled national media company headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, announced that Farah Zaman has been named chief privacy officer, effective immediately. She joins Meredith from Colgate-Palmolive Co., where she had served as senior global data privacy counsel for about a year and a half. Prior to that, she was senior counsel for privacy at The Nielsen Co.

In her new role, Zaman will oversee Meredith's privacy compliance, education and protection strategies across all businesses and locations and report to general counsel John Zieser, according to a statement announcing her hire. Zaman is the first person to hold this role at Meredith.

“Learning more about the organization will be a challenge in and of itself. At the same time, I will be guiding Meredith through the implementation of the California Consumer Privacy Act— which will inform the company's privacy legal framework until/if a federal law is passed—under a tight timeline,” Zaman told Corporate Counsel. “Focusing on those two priorities simultaneously is a formidable challenge, but I am enthusiastic about how engaged and proactive the cross functional team is. I look forward to working together to find the best solutions for Meredith's consumers, clients and the company at large.”

Zaman, a graduate of Brooklyn Law School, began her legal career in government, serving as a legal fellow in the New York Mayor's Office for International Affairs and then as an attorney in the office of data privacy at the New York City Human Resources Administration/Department of Social Services, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Meredith told Corporate Counsel that it previously managed privacy via an executive steering committee, but with the trend in legislation and the higher importance on data in the company's activities, the leadership decided to hire a senior‐level person to manage the privacy program. Zaman will be a part of the now 20-member legal department.

“My priority is to get to know the people and the organization, especially the diverse uses of data in different parts of Meredith,” Zaman said. “Once I have clarity in those areas, my objective is to build a robust privacy office that meets the needs of the company. I will focus on innovation and efficiency while balancing customer expectations and trust. Ensuring compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act, which goes into effect in January, will also be a major priority for me.”

Meredith's national media group, which reaches about 180 million American consumers every month, including nearly 90% of female millennials, publishes Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Shape and other magazines. Meredith also licenses more than 3,000 stock keeping units of branded products at 5,000 Walmart stores nationwide and has a division that provides marketing services to well-known brands such as The Kraft Heinz Co., Benjamin Moore, Allergan, TGIFriday's and WebMD.

Its Atlanta-based local media group includes 17 television stations reaching 11% of U.S. households. The stations are concentrated in large markets, with seven in the nation's Top 25—including Atlanta, Phoenix, St. Louis and Portland, Oregon—and 13 in Top 50 markets. Meredith's stations produce 700 hours of local news and entertainment each week, and operate leading local digital destinations.

“Protecting our consumers' privacy and data is a major priority for Meredith,” GC Zieser said in the company announcement. “Farah is passionate about data privacy and we are very fortunate to have someone with her expertise join the Meredith team.”