Information Commissioner
+ -dr. Jelena Virant Burnik
Phone: +386 1 230 97 30
e-mail: gp.ip(at)ip-rs.si
Jelena Virant Burnik joined the Information Commissioner in 2008. She performed the duties of the national data protection supervisor until 2018, when she became Head of international cooperation and supervision, overseeing the field of cross-border data processing and coordinating the Information Commissioner's activities in the European Data Protection Board (EDPB).
Over the span of her career working with the Information Commissioner, she has primarily dealt with issues related to data protection in modern information and communication services, artificial intelligence, digitalisation processes, cross-border cooperation of supervisory authorities, data transfers to third countries, certification and data protection awareness raising activities. Ms Virant Burnik represented the Information Commissioner in numerous bodies, working groups, and projects, such as the Article 29 Working Party, the Council of Europe, the Digital Education Working Group of the Global Privacy Assembly, and the council of the Safer Internet Centre. She has coordinated the Information Commissioner's activities in several European projects. She gives regular lectures at various events and publishes in professional and academic publications. Ms Virant Burnik is also the co-author of the Personal Data Protection Act (ZVOP-2) with commentary.
She graduated in 2007 from the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana and in 2008 she completed her master’s degree in communications regulation at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom. She was awarded a PhD in 2019 at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana with a dissertation on the regulation of behavioural advertising from the perspective of the right to privacy and personal data protection. On the proposal of the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Ms Nataša Pirc Musar, the National Assembly elected her as the new Information Commissioner on 10 July 2024. She assumed her five-year term on 18 July 2024.
Photos for the press:
Foto: Miran Juršič / Information Commissioner