Outgoing data watchdog lead Helen Dixon to join comms regulator

Helen Dixon will take up her role as commissioner at ComReg in early 2024 after she finishes up her duties with the DPC.

Just hours after she announced that she would be stepping down from her role as head of the Data Protection Commission (DPC), Helen Dixon has been appointed to another high-profile regulatory position.

Dixon will take on a new job as commissioner at Ireland’s communications regulator, ComReg. Her appointment was announced today (16 November) by Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, TD.

The minister said that Dixon “will bring considerable national and international experience to this role, particularly in an evolving regulatory and legal framework where telecoms and postal sectors have seen rapidly accelerated digitalisation”.

Dixon spent the first decade of her career working in IT, before holding senior roles in the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. There, she worked on economic migration policy as well as science, technology and innovation policy. She also led regulatory enforcement of compliance with the filing provisions of the Companies Acts as Irish registrar of companies.

She was appointed as data protection commissioner for Ireland in 2014 and was reappointed for a second, five-year term in May 2019. She was at the helm of the body when the EU began implementing GDPR regulation, which she spoke to SiliconRepublic.com about at the time.

Dixon will step into her new role in early 2024, around the same time as her duties at the DPC finish up.

According to Ryan, the communications regulator is “facing into a challenging period” with rapid digitalisation. Dixon’s appointment brings ComReg to its full complement of three commissioners, which Ryan said “will further strengthen the leadership required to stay abreast of major developments in the digital sector, ensure an appropriate regulatory response to challenges and opportunities, and proactively engage with consumers”.

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Ireland’s data protection commissioner Helen Dixon in 2019. Image: Stuart Isett/Fortune Global Forum via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)