Effective November 1, 2007, Elizabeth Denham was appointed Assistant Privacy Commissioner of Canada with primary responsibility for the federal private sector privacy law, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Immediately prior to this appointment, she served as Director of Research, Analysis and Stakeholder Relations with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Ms. Denham has extensive experience in the privacy and access field from the perspectives of both government and private sector, including several years of senior level leadership in provincial and municipal governments, as well as health and regulatory organizations in Alberta.

From 2003 to 2007, Ms. Denham was Director, Private Sector, for the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta. In this role, she established and directed the compliance and enforcement program for Alberta's private sector privacy law. She has extensive speaking experience at conferences and industry meetings, and organized the inaugural Alberta-BC Private Sector Privacy Conference.

From 2001 to 2003, Ms. Denham ran her own privacy policy consulting business that included public sector and private sector clients in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario. Working with the Calgary Health Region from 1997 to 2001, she held the positions of Information and Privacy Coordinator and Director, Legal and Regulatory Affairs. Ms. Denham also served as the public member on the Research Ethics Board, University of Calgary.

Prior to her work in the privacy field, Ms. Denham directed the archives programs and established new information management programs for the City of Calgary and the City of Richmond (B.C.).

She holds degrees in history (Bachelor of Arts) and archival and information science (Masters of Arts)from the University of British Columbia.