Mission
Who are we?
The Board and the Supervisory Board are composed of privacy advocates and leading specialists experienced in privacy protection and collective actions of social importance. The members of both the Board and Supervisory Board collectively possess the experience and legal expertise necessary to safeguard the interests of the Aggrieved Parties in this Action.
Board
Ada van der Veer (Chair) is a seasoned board and supervisory board member with more than 30 years of experience in and around the boardroom, both in the banking sector and beyond. She has been committed to matters of social importance for many years. For example, she was Chair of the Dutch Accountancy Monitoring Committee and, with regard to the protection of the right to privacy, is also Chair of the Supervisory Board of the Data Privacy Foundation. Van der Veer is a member of the core team of Erasmus Governance Institute, Erasmus Universiteit and a sought-after speaker and lecturer, including at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Nyenrode Business Universiteit and Erasmus University. In addition, Van der Veer’s positions include supervisory board member at Nederlandse Loterij (Dutch Lottery), Chair of the Supervisory Board of Arcadis Netherlands, Chair of the Supervisory Board of Stater N.V., and board member of Stichting Preferente Aandelen Nedap NV. Van der Veer’s past board experience includes serving as a board member of Achmea Bank Holding, CEO of Currence Holding, and Chair of the Board of Staal Bankiers. She was also supervisory board member at several organisations including Alliander, DeGiro, Leaseplan Corporation, NPO and Maag Lever Darm Stichting. For short CV, see here.
Marlies van Eck (Board member) is a specialist in data protection law and administrative law, and focuses on the legal aspects of the use of technology. She is partner at Hooghiemstra & Partners, where she advises and conducts research, including for the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights on the topic of human rights considerations in the context of the use of algorithms. Van Eck publishes frequently and has obtained her doctorate on the subject of automated chain decisions and legal protection. She teaches at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen. For Universiteit leiden, she initiated the post academic course AI Law and Ethics. In the past, Van Eck has advised the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport on the European Comission’s proposal for an AI Law and led the research on De LegitiMaat, a method for assessing the automated execution of laws. Van Eck received the Hermersdorf talent award from Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen for bringing attention to the adverse effects of government use of technology in the media. For short CV, see here.
Ira Rubinstein (Board member) is a specialist in privacy, big data, surveillance law and privacy engineering. Rubinstein lectures and has published widely on privacy and security issues and has received several awards for his work, such as the Privacy Papers for Policymakers Award. He has also testified before the Congress on these topics on several occasions. Rubinstein spent 17 years in Microsoft’s Legal and Corporate Affairs department, most recently as Associate General Counsel in charge of the Regulatory Affairs and Public Policy group. Rubinstein is currently a Senior Fellow at New York University School of Law’s Information Law Institute, and a Senior Fellow at the Future of Privacy Forum. He also holds various board positions, among others at the Data Privacy Foundation. For short CV, click here.
Supervisory Board
Ben Knüppe (Chair) has worked as a lawyer for more than 25 years and in that capacity has worked at several renowned law firms, namely NautaDutilh and AKD. From 2004 to 2020, Knüppe was board member and subsequently CEO of Dexia Bank Netherlands. As of 2010, Knüppe held various supervisory and board positions. In that capacity, Knüppe has gained broad experience in the areas of duty of care of financial institutions, mass damages and class actions. For example, Knüppe is also Chair of the Supervisory Board of the Petrobras Compensation Foundation and Chair of the Board of the Victimes des déchets toxiques Côte d’Ivoire Foundation. Knüppe further frequently acted as advisor, administrator and/or trustee of companies in financial difficulty. As such, he was the administrator for the bankruptcy of DSB bank followed by a receivership for DSB. Furthermore, Knüppe acted as member of the commission to design the uniform recovery framework on interest derivatives upon appointment by the Minister of Finance and the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets. Finally, he was requested to act as counsel to the Enterprise Chamber on a number of occasions. For short CV, see here.
Ari Waldman (Board member) is a specialist in law, technology and society, and is professor of law at University of California, Irvine School of Law. Waldman is a widely published scholar, including several books, Privacy As Trust: Information Privacy for an Information Age (Cambridge University Press, 2018), Industry Unbound: The Inside Story of Privacy, Data, and Corporate Power (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Advanced Introduction to U.S. Data Privacy Law (Elgar Advanced Introductions series, 2023), and more than 35 articles published in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed journals. He has won numerous awards, fellowships and research grants for his scholarship. Waldman is a recognized leader in his field and was elected to the American Law Institute in 2019 and serves on the Board of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). In 2020, he was elected Chair of the Privacy Law Scholars Conference (PLSC), the largest academic conference in the field of law and technology. For short CV, see here.
Clive Zietman (Board member) leads the commercial litigation team at the prominent London law firm Stewarts Law as a partner. Zietman has over thirty years of experience in the legal profession and has been involved in a wide range of complex and high value cases, including a number of large and well-known fraud cases, search order cases and proceedings against banks. He also acts as a supervising solicitor appointed by the court in search order cases. For short CV, see here.
Learn more about the Foundation’s purpose and mission and core values. See also our Cookie policy and Privacy policy.
Core values
The Foundation
The Foundation is an independent non-profit organization. Commercial interests play no role: the interests of consumers come first. The Board and Supervisory Board of the Foundation consist of independent, experienced and distinguished members.
Full Control
The Foundation, and therefore the Board, has full control over its policy and the course of its activities. The Supervisory Board of the Foundation supervises the policy, strategy and general course of affairs of the Foundation. The Foundation operates independently of the litigation funder.
Claim Code
The Foundation closely follows the 2019 Claims Code. This code contains principles and elaborations which are considered widely accepted general guidelines for advocacy organizations, such as the Foundation, in collective actions, including in legal proceedings. Each year, the Foundation publishes a document explaining how it complies with the Claim Code (read the Claim Code Compliance documents).