Angela Balakrishnan

Angela heads up the award-winning communications and public affairs directorate at the Information Commissioner's Office‚ the UK's data protection regulator. Her teams help people understand their privacy and freedom of information rights. But more than that, they use comms and engagement to help people to care: to take steps to protect their information, and to see why their rights ‚ and the ICO's work protecting them‚ are so important. She specialises in using integrated communications that bring together engaging storytelling, creative content and partnerships to connect organisations' work with different audiences and deliver social change. She co-chairs the UK Regulators communications network, is part of the Women in PR committee and on the board of the Asian Communications Network. She spent nine years in government communication, working on international and business issues including the Ebola crisis, Syria conflict and launching shared parental leave. She began her career as a journalist, working at the Guardian, before cutting her teeth in comms at one of the UK's biggest charities, Cancer Research UK.