Ethyca, an enterprise software company specializing in context-aware data infrastructure for the AI era, has announced the appointment of Julie Brill and Daniel Weitzner to its Board of Directors.
Julie Brill, Expert-in-Residence at Harvard, previously served as Chief Privacy Officer at Microsoft and as a Commissioner of the U.
S. Federal Trade Commission. Daniel Weitzner is the Director of MIT’s Internet Policy Research Initiative and formerly held the position of U.
S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer.
Cillian Kieran, CEO of Ethyca, stated, “Julie and Daniel are two of the world’s most respected voices on privacy, governance, and accountability in technology today.” Their appointments occur as enterprise demand for trustworthy, policy-aware data systems increases, particularly given that over 80 percent of AI projects often fail before delivering business value due to issues with underlying data pipelines and the inability to embed privacy, compliance, and governance context into data at scale.
Ethyca addresses these challenges by embedding privacy and policy constraints directly into the data layer, allowing organizations to deploy AI systems that are both compliant and commercially viable. The company’s platform serves customers such as Axios, Ramp, and SurveyMonkey. Mr. Kieran added that their decision to join the board signals belief in the company’s product and “the need for a new category of infrastructure: context-aware data systems that enable enterprises to scale at the speed of AI.”
Ms. Brill recently retired from her role leading Microsoft’s global privacy, regulatory affairs, and compliance strategy, where she helped shape the company’s response to AI governance demands. Her tenure as a Federal Trade Commission Commissioner from 2010 to 2016 saw her advocate for consumer protection, privacy, and competition policy. “AI will only achieve its promise if it is built on trusted data foundations,” Brill commented. “Ethyca’s approach puts privacy, security, and policy at the heart of enterprise data infrastructure. I’m excited to help guide the company as it works with global organizations to scale AI responsibly.”
Mr. Weitzner is a Senior Research Scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and leads the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative, focusing on accountability and data governance for large-scale digital systems. As Deputy U.
S. Chief Technology Officer in the Obama White House, he oversaw internet policy, privacy, and the development of the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights. His research has been instrumental in the field of accountable systems. “At its core, enabling AI at scale is not a problem of algorithms but of data accountability,” said Weitzner. “Ethyca has built the most innovative system I’ve seen that operationalizes context, consent, and governance in ways enterprises can actually deploy. I look forward to helping shape the company’s impact on the next generation of AI infrastructure.”
These appointments highlight Ethyca’s objective to become a prominent platform for enterprises requiring data that is suitable, safe, and shareable across analytics and AI environments. With the combined experience of Ms. Brill and Mr. Weitzner in government, academia, and industry, Ethyca aims to define how organizations engineer trust into their data systems.
