Stella Sofía Vanegas

Bio

Stella Vanegas is a Colombian Lawyer from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá), with a specialization in Financial Legislation from the Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá), an LLM from Lovaina University (Belgium), and a Master in European Union Law from the Universidad de Alcalá (Spain).  She’s the Chair of Privacy Rules’ LATAM Committee since 2020 and the founding Partner at Vanegas Morales Consultores, a consultancy firm based in Bogotá, that specializes in data privacy, IT and Financial Services. She’s also a Professor on Privacy and Digital Security at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá), and she holds the position of President of the Directive Committee of the Colombian Association of Data and Privacy (ADAPRI). Stella has 30+ years of experience, advising clients belonging to the private and public sector in matters involving Privacy and Data Protection, Information Security, Commercial and Consumer Law, among others, and she’s considered a leader and a pioneer in developing and implementing privacy compliance programs and privacy business strategies in high level companies in Colombia.

As Chair of Privacy Rules LATAM Committee, Stella is dedicated to fomenting a deeper understanding in Latin American countries of what privacy protection entails, so that companies, at all levels, understand the impact of privacy by design and default on their businesses and become interested in moving towards an organizational culture that embraces and respects the principles of Data Protection beyond the mere compliance with Data Protection Regulations. With this goal in mind, Stella aims at being Privacy Rules’ bridge to keeping LATAM at the forefront of providing unique integrated legal, tech and data crisis communication expert solutions for privacy, as part of Privacy Rules’ worldwide alliance.