In Episode 7 of Generation GDPR, I speak to the legendary Cristina Vannini-Goodchild. Cristina's route to becoming a data protection specialist is a lesson to anyone who is looking at the DP / privacy sector from outside and wondering how to break in. She just did it. We talked about her career managing projects for big organisations, and how preparing for GDPR opened her eyes to a different path. This leads on to the importance of having a passion for your work, but also setting practical and achievable goals. Her positive spin on nurturing her clients is a nice contrast to the pessimism you get from certain DP dinosaurs. Anyway.... this is an upbeat and entertaining episode and I am sure you will enjoy it.

Sona Mehta is a lecturer and lawyer and is the first pod participant who returned to the sector with GDPR rather than joined it for the first time. We talked about why she did that, and how flexibility and adaptability are core to how data protection professionals thrive. Data Protection is perceived as boring, and Sona has an interesting perspective on the need to educate the coming generations about what it's all about. We also talked about the importance of networks and the need to strike a balance between compliance and commerce. I really enjoyed our conversation and I'm sure you will too.

Guest number five is the marvellous Courtney Rose Lee-Hentze. Courtney talked about her passion for data protection, the way skills can be re-purposed when entering the sector, and inevitably, a certain beloved science fiction franchise came up. Yes, we had a long conversation about Critters.... OK, I asked her about Star Wars and if you're a fan, you will not be disappointed with a far deeper answer than my knowledge prepared me for. And even though I have been asking for it, she delivered the most brutal observation about my age in the series. I am never speechless, but this is close.