Lead practitioner

Julian Gage, Founder and Lead DPO at Engage Compliance

Julian Gage, Founder and Lead DPO

15 plus years in privacy program leadership.

Prior in-house privacy roles at Coinbase (US-listed crypto exchange, scaled privacy program through public listing), Robinhood (FinTech, retail brokerage, privacy operations across product and growth), Amazon (multi-jurisdiction privacy at scale), Medtronic (medical devices, HIPAA and GDPR coordination), AbbVie (pharmaceuticals, clinical and patient data), IKEA (retail, EU GDPR), and Hopin (events, COVID-era privacy build).

Former IAPP Netherlands Chapter Chair.

Certifications: CIPP/E (Certified Information Privacy Professional, Europe), CIPM (Certified Information Privacy Manager), CIPP/US (Certified Information Privacy Professional, US), AIGP (AI Governance Professional).

Speaker and panelist: IAPP events, OneTrust PrivacyConnect, US-ASEAN Business Council, Data Protocol Privacy Engineering.

Breach and incident response

We handle breach response directly, included from the DPO Essentials tier, with priority 24/7 response on DPO Premium. We cover 72-hour GDPR Article 33 notification work, regulator communications, and post-incident remediation, backed by external partners for legal counsel and backfill coverage.

Named partner network

Apart from our team of DPOs, we also retain specialists for work that sits outside the core DPO scope. We bring in key partners so clients get full coverage without paying for a permanent in-house bench.

External legal counsel

We coordinate with privacy law firms across EU, UK, and US jurisdictions for matters that require attorney-client privilege, litigation support, or complex cross-border data transfer counsel. Specific firms vary by jurisdiction and matter type.

Surge capacity for enterprise deals, audits, and M&A

Cleared senior practitioners available for short-burst work where client volume spikes. Use cases include enterprise vendor questionnaire campaigns, investor or acquirer due diligence, regulatory audits.

Cybersecurity coordination

Vetted vCISO and penetration testing partners for clients who need privacy and security expertise jointly.

How the team model works in practice

  • You get one named lead practitioner as your day-to-day contact, not a rotating consultant pool.
  • For specialist work (legal advice, M&A), the lead practitioner brings in the relevant named partner with you involved in introductions.
  • If the lead practitioner is unavailable (holiday, illness), a named senior practitioner from the partner bench covers urgent matters with a 4-hour response SLA.
  • No junior hand-offs. The work stays at senior level.
  • Every engagement is covered by professional indemnity and cyber insurance.

Why this model

The trade-off in the outsourced DPO market is well-known: large firms offer scale and team redundancy but assign work across a wide consultant pool, often at junior levels. Small solo consultants offer senior expertise but create single-point-of-failure risk.

Engage’s senior-led, team-delivered model addresses both. You get senior expertise on every engagement, plus a partner bench for continuity and specialist depth.

References

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Will we get the same person, or a rotating pool of consultants?

You get one named lead practitioner as your day-to-day contact, not a rotating consultant pool. The work stays at senior level with no junior hand-offs, and for specialist work such as legal advice or M&A the lead practitioner brings in the relevant named partner with you involved in introductions.

What happens if our lead practitioner is unavailable?

If the lead practitioner is unavailable due to holiday or illness, a named senior practitioner from the partner bench covers urgent matters with a 4-hour response SLA.

What does the partner network actually cover?

The partner network handles work that sits outside the core DPO scope: external legal counsel across EU, UK, and US jurisdictions for matters needing attorney-client privilege, litigation support, or complex cross-border transfer counsel; cleared senior practitioners for surge capacity on enterprise deals, audits, and M&A; and vetted vCISO and penetration testing partners for joint privacy and security work.

Who handles a data breach?

We handle breach response directly, included from the DPO Essentials tier, with priority 24/7 response on DPO Premium. We cover 72-hour GDPR Article 33 notification work, regulator communications, and post-incident remediation, backed by external partners for legal counsel and backfill coverage.

Are your engagements insured?

Yes. Every engagement is covered by professional indemnity and cyber insurance.