Strengthening Your Data Security: Third Party Vendor Risk Classification and Screening

Michael A. Avalos is an Assistant General Counsel in American International Group, Inc.’s (AIG) Digitial & Business Services Legal Group. During his 10-year AIG career, Michael has been responsible for negotiating a wide range of commercial transactions including, but not limited to, professional/consulting services, IT, outsourcing, travel, marketing, sponsorship, training and corporate cards. His work in this area includes advising AIG’s business units on all stages of the contract process – request for proposals (RFPs), project strategy, negotiation of governing agreements and ongoing vendor governance.

Before joining AIG, Michael worked at MetLife and ING DIRECT where he was responsible for supporting each company’s procurement department. Michael graduated from Widener University School of Law with a Juris Doctor and LLM (Corporate Law and Finance), and from Fordham University with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature.

Jordan Thompson is the General Counsel of Penn Foster Group, formerly Deputy General Counsel and Privacy Officer of New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) and its College of Medicine (NYITCOM). A non-profit independent, private institution of higher education, NYIT has 10,000 students in programs and campuses in New York (Manhattan and Old Westbury, Long Island) and Arkansas as well as China, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates. NYIT sponsors 13 NCAA Division II programs.

In addition to day to day duties as university legal counsel, Mr. Thompson negotiates technology agreements with an emphasis on protecting university assets and student data privacy. He serves as the university legal point of contact on major cloud-migration initiatives.

In his role as Privacy Officer, he participates in strategic decision making, developing policy and training staff and faculty on data loss prevention and privacy compliance with a focus on FERPA, HIPAA and the NY SHIELD Act.

A Certified Information Privacy Professional, Mr. Thompson is a frequent speaker on privacy and technology matters and enjoys sharing real world experience with others while striving to offer practical solutions to problems.

Mr. Thompson began his career as a litigator and has previously served in Associate General Counsel roles for a for-profit medical school and a nationally known commercial automobile insurance company.

Kevin oversees the legal function of the Marketing Cloud and Communications and Retail Global Business Units at Oracle. He is responsible for all corporate and commercial activities, including acquisitions, strategic alliances, partnerships, and the spectrum of technology transactions (software, cloud/SaaS, hardware, consulting, outsourcing). He also partners with executive management and key stakeholders to support the product development lifecycle, monitor and mitigate organizational risks, ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements worldwide (including data privacy), and resolve disputes with customers, partners, and vendors.

Kevin has focused on the telecommunications, media, technology, and financial services industries during his career. He has significant knowledge of the challenges and opportunities faced by companies in these heavily regulated and highly competitive industries, including in new and emerging markets. In addition, his tenure at Oracle has provided in-depth insight into disruptive technologies such as cloud computing, big data/analytics, e-commerce, and social media, as well as the data privacy and security issues implicated by their rapid adoption.