About the IAPP

Sam Kaplan is a senior-level policy, legal and national security professional with over 17 years of experience in the public and private sector. Sam currently serves as the Assistant General Counsel and Senior Director for Public Policy & Government Affairs at Palo Alto Networks, where he provides legal advice and guidance on domestic and international legislative, regulatory and policy matters, focusing on cybersecurity law, artificial intelligence regulation and governance, critical infrastructure protection, privacy and data security, international data flows, and public-private capacity building. Sam comes to Palo Alto Networks from Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), where he led the team responsible for global product policy on Facebook’s News Feed and News Tab. In that role, he covered a wide range of legal and policy issues including AI/ML fairness, algorithmic transparency, platform integrity, election security, misinformation, and harmful content. Prior to his tenure in the private sector, Sam spent over twelve-years in the Federal Government, most recently serving at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as the Assistant Secretary for Cyber, Infrastructure, Risk and Resilience Policy, and the Department’s Chief Privacy Officer. Prior to DHS, Sam worked at the U.S. Department of Justice in a number of law enforcement and national security roles at the Office of Legal Policy, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Major Crimes and Narcotics Division at U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Sam additionally served as Counselor to a member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, where he oversaw privacy and civil liberties issues within the U.S. Intelligence Community. Sam is a graduate of the University of Denver, Strum College of Law, and has a Masters Degree in International Studies and Homeland Security from the Korbel School of International Studies.