Biography
Jim Nieman currently serves as Counsel and Corporate Privacy Officer at Guardian, leading the development, design, and implementation of Guardian’s Global Privacy Program. In addition to Jim’s role as the leading legal counsel for privacy matters across the organization, in less than two years, Jim led the establishment of a Privacy Program that includes comprehensive governance of online privacy and information sharing practices for Guardian’s digital properties and online services, business and functional areas and third-parties to the company, as well as institutionalized a privacy incident management program, digital communications compliance process, and enhanced privacy training and awareness for all Guardian employees.
With over 15 years of insurance industry experience in various legal and compliance roles throughout the industry, Jim honed his privacy expertise and program management through extensive legal and compliance leadership regarding HIPAA), within some of the largest national and international insurance carriers. Previous to his current role, as part of Guardian’s Group Compliance team, Jim led a company-wide assessment of Guardian’s HIPAA compliance program, and used his unique knowledge of both privacy and security rules to identify gaps and implement solutions efficiently and effectively.
Prior to joining Guardian, Jim was Director of Regulatory Supervision at Prudential Financial, Inc., serving as the Group Insurance profit center privacy leader and designated HIPAA Privacy Officer, where he advised on state law compliance, Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA) and HIPAA privacy issues and successfully enhanced Prudential’s privacy program by implementing a comprehensive data loss program. Jim also managed annual HIPAA and GLBA privacy assessments and was responsible for annual presentations before Prudential’s Risk Committee on the “state of privacy” of the Group Insurance profit center. Additionally, as the privacy leader, Jim was responsible for resolving privacy incidents of various sizes, including a breach impacting over ten thousand individuals. In addition to his extensive privacy experience, as Assistant General Counsel at AIG, Jim successfully negotiated payment card processing agreements with various banks, while serving as counsel for AIG Travel Assist and Travel Guard (International). Jim also managed Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance initiatives which involved both internal and vendor solutions. Prior to his tenure at AIG, Jim served in a compliance function at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Inc.