Research conducted by GO DPO®, the strategic partner for the Henley Data Protection Officer (DPO) Programme, estimates that around 7,000 large companies (employing in excess of 250 employees) will need to recruit and train at least one DPO each over the next 24 months. Between now and when the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force on 25 May 2018, that equates to having to train around 14 DPOs every single working day.

Darren Verrian, CEO, GO DPO® explains: “This headline figure of 7,000 DPOs isn’t a wild exaggeration and if anything is an under-estimate of the actual requirement as many banks and insurance companies employ more than one senior manager to fulfil the requirements of a DPO whose role can involve handling millions of customer and client accounts.

“Our conservative calculations are based on figures published by the BIS at the end of last year and exclude 33,000 medium-sized companies that employ 50-249 employees, many of which will also need to appoint a DPO.

Third party DPO managed service

“Not all companies will want to employ an in-house DPO but will opt for a third party provided DPO managed service. However, these independent contractors will also need to be trained.”

DPO Training 

As a result of demand, particularly from the financial services sector, for senior manager training for those to be appointed as a DPO, Henley Business School has just launched its own Executive Education DPO Programme and expects to have a significant number of enrolments over the next six months.

The DPO Programme can be experienced free by registering for the ‘Getting Started’ interactive Module – just click on the green “sneak preview” button on this web page www.henley.ac.uk/dpo

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CTMfile take: What part is your corporate treasury department going to play in Data Protection Programmes? DP in the EU is another regulation that could mess up your corporate treasury department's operations.