Pursue privacy roles to propel your career.

• Author: Dmytrenko, April
• Position: FELLOWS FORUM

With the current hyper-focus on protecting information assets, this is an optimum time for records and information management professionals to leverage their commonalities with their privacy counterparts and expand their role--or even take the lead--in their organizations' privacy efforts.

Editor's Note: Welcome to the first Fellows Forum, which will appear in each issue of Information Management magazine to expand and provoke forward thinking about the records and information management (RIM) profession. Each article will be authored by a RIM professional who--through his or her outstanding achievements and contributions to RIM and to ARMA International at the local, regional, and national levels--has received the distinction of being named a Fellow of ARMA International (FAI). The Company of Fellows was established in 1990 and has 51 members worldwide.

Every year of my long and rich career in records and information management (RIM) has been more rewarding than the previous one, offering greater challenges and opportunities to expand my knowledge, experience, and sphere of influence.

Although the fundamental responsibility of RIM remains the management of the records and information lifecycle, the complex and sophisticated knowledge and experience required for a senior-level RIM professional today put the position on par with C-level executives in terms of their value to the organization.

The position has been elevated, fortunately or not, by the costly risks and severe consequences of litigation, non-compliance, and data breaches that organizations now face. From my perspective, and according to frequent news headlines, a data breach is one of the most threatening concerns.

When protected data is viewed, stolen, or used by unauthorized parties, there can be devastating repercussions, including damage to the organization's reputation and brand, loss of revenue, lawsuits and sanctions, lost customers, and negatively impacted company value.

Opportunity for RIM

The discipline of privacy, which is focused on the appropriate collection, use, access, protection, disposition, and overall governance of personal or other highly confidential/sensitive information, offers RIM professionals an additional avenue for expanding their role.

Taking on privacy responsibilities or serving in a key advisory role provide a golden opportunity to increase and demonstrate your value to your organization. There are many potential privacy roles from which to choose, such as privacy governance, cyber/data security, forensics and penetration testing, and breach/incident response--and new roles are continuing to emerge for both practitioners and service providers.

Program Similarities

RIM has crossed paths with privacy for decades due to their common information concerns. In fact...