John Russo

John is vice-president, legal counsel, corporate secretary and chief privacy officer for Equifax Canada, the largest credit reporting agency in Canada.

His responsibilities include legal services, global sourcing, all security and compliance, regulatory, government and legislative relations, corporate governance and privacy functions. He sits on the corporation’s board as corporate secretary, and has also served as Equifax’s interim chief security officer from September 2010 until January 2012.

At Equifax, he has acted in many corporate capabilities, is a member of the Canadian Executive Leadership Team, and has recently spearheaded Equifax’s Global EquifaxProtect initiative.

In 2014, John appeared before The House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI) on identity theft and its economic impact on Canadian businesses.

Prior to joining Equifax in 2007, John served as an associate at Dentons (formerly Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP) from 1998 until 2007, where he was a member of the firm’s Financial Services Group.

He earned a Bachelor of Applied Arts in broadcast journalism in 1991 from Ryerson University and received his law degree from the University of Western Ontario Law School in 1998. He was an instructor and lecturer on commercial and insolvency law issues at the Ontario Bar Admission Course.

John has been quoted in various newspaper articles on privacy, fraud and identity theft, and has appeared as an expert in television documentaries such as “Synthetic Identity Fraud: The Anatomy of a Scam” (CBC’s The National), as well as conducting many live interviews on BNN and CTVNewsnet on various credit reporting, data breach and identity protection issues.