Ancestry Appoints Eric Heath as Chief Privacy Officer

Ancestry, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, today announced that Eric Heath has been appointed Chief Privacy Officer, reporting to Carla Newell, Chief Legal and Risk Officer at Ancestry. Heath brings extensive legal, privacy, and compliance leadership experience from globally recognized technology companies to Ancestry.

Heath has spent over a decade working for both consumer and B2B internet companies, including Zenefits, Yahoo, and LinkedIn building relationships with regulatory bodies and policy makers and shaping company policies, procedures and operational compliance programs to enable business growth. Heath will work closely with teams across the company guiding compliance and privacy program development to support the rapidly growing business and meet regulatory requirements in markets across the globe.

“From the very beginning, ensuring the security and privacy of our customers’ information has been one of Ancestry’s highest priorities,” said Tim Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry. “Ancestry has built on customer trust for decades, and this trust has enabled transformative moments for millions of people who now understand more deeply who they are and where they came from. Eric’s appointment reaffirms our longstanding commitment to nurturing that trust. His experience will be a huge asset as we continue to invest significantly in best-in-class protections and policies for the powerful information that millions have entrusted to us.”

“With the Ancestry database of DNA from more than three million people, making it the leader in the consumer genomics space, along with Ancestry’s deep family history data, I am excited to be joining the company as it continues its groundbreaking work,” said Heath. “As Tim has said, Ancestry fundamentally views privacy and security with equal status to the business -- reinforcing the value to our users and enabling our success as a company. As the company grows globally, and privacy laws and regulations evolve, I look forward to helping Ancestry build and maintain consumer trust while helping people explore more about themselves, their families and connections to history and the world through Ancestry’s products.”

Prior to joining Ancestry, Heath was Chief Privacy Officer at Zenefits, led the Privacy Policy and Data Governance team at Yahoo, and served as LinkedIn’s Global Privacy lead. He is an expert in tackling privacy issues on a global scale helping businesses navigate the intersection of privacy, data protection and security. Heath received his bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame and his J.D. from Washburn University School of Law.