HOJ 017: Ruby Zefo: Privacy, Leaps of Faith, & When Uber Called

Welcome to Heels of Justice; these are the stories of women lawyers who are trailblazers in their field and paved the way for the rest of us.

Today, the Heels of Justice interview Ruby Zefo, Chief Privacy Officer at Uber.

Before joining Uber, Ruby A. Zefo served as Vice President of Law and Policy Group and as Associate General Counsel and Chief Privacy and Security Counsel at Intel Corporation. She began her in-house career at Sun Microsystems.

Key Takeaways

[1:23] Katherine welcomes Ruby Zefo to the Heels of Justice podcast and asks her to talk about what led her to law.

[4:28] Ruby shares her experience of law school and why her heart was set on litigation.

[5:31] Katherine asks Ruby how pursuing a trial law career was different for her as a woman.

[7:25] Ruby left litigation in 1996, and talks us through how she was poached from her firm!

[9:02] Katherine asks what the challenges of that firm in-house role were.

[10:04] What drove Ruby’s journey from IP to privacy?

[13:03] Ruby describes her 15 years at Intel as well as her favorite projects.

[15:13] Katherine asks when and how, through all this experience, her focus began to switch towards privacy and security.

[18:25] Ruby shares how managerial support is critical when diving head first into unknown waters.

[21:23] Ruby describes the privacy law changes she has seen in the past 10 years as well as the coming challenges in the field.

[23:21] On AI and its implications as well as the way increasing public interest in privacy affects communication needs.

[26:06] What feedback would Ruby give legislators in terms of privacy notice regulation.

[27:21] Ruby shares a failure she feels she repeated and the steps she took to overcome that experience.

[33:19] Tangible advice about how to advocate for yourself.

[38:39] Katherine asks Ruby what advice she would give to her younger self.

[41:52] Katherine thanks Ruby for sharing so much of her experience on the Heels of Justice podcast and she signs off until next time.

 

That’s it for this episode of Heels of Justice; if you like the stories we’re telling, please visit our website. You can join our mailing list, learn more about our guests, and see what we have planned for the future.

You can also follow us on Twitter, on Instagram, and on Facebook.

 

Disclaimer: The opinions you have heard are ours or our guest’s alone. They’re not the opinions of our employers, or our clients, or our bosses, and not our husbands, kids or pets, or anyone else’s.

 

Mentioned in this episode (chronological order)

Jaws

Sun Microsystems

Intel

More about the Heels of Justice hosts Sarita Venkat, and Katherine Minarik

Heels of Justice on the Web

Heels of Justice on Twitter

Heels of Justice on Instagram

Heels of Justice on Facebook

 

Sarita Venkat on LinkedIn

Katherine Minarik on LinkedIn

Katherine Minarik on Twitter

Katherine Minarik at cleverbridge

 

Personal stories (edited)

“An executive who had known me for a number of years said to me, ‘How are you going to do that?’ And I told him that what would really help me is if he were to say, “I don’t know how you’re going to do this, but I know what you’re capable of and so I have every confidence you’ll figure it out!’ He turned beet red and told me I was absolutely right and from there he was one of my biggest supporters. I feel you can have those conversations when you’ve known people a while, and have a trusted environment. Call them out if they’re not being helpful in your career development and they don’t have any reason to be doubtful.”

 

More about our guest

Ruby Zefo on LinkedIn

Ruby Zefo on Twitter