Sol Bermann is the Executive Director of Privacy & Faculty Affairs at the University of Michigan. From 2019-2024, he was Chief Information Security Officer and Executive Director of Information Assurance (IT security, privacy, IT policy, compliance, and enterprise continuity) program, including Ann Arbor, Flint, and Dearborn. 

Sol is also Adjunct Assistant Professor in UMSI, and teaches on Privacy & Surveillance. He also co-convenes Dissonance, a group of multidisciplinary faculty and students that explore issues at the confluence of technology, privacy, policy, security and law. 

Since joining the university in 2011, Sol has served as the University Privacy Officer, and IT Policy and Compliance Strategist. In this role he has, among other things, provided strategic direction in how the institution engages cloud services; implemented the policy on the use of personally owned devices when working with sensitive data,; coordinated efforts related to securing sensitive research data, university data governance, and the development of proposed learning analytics guiding principles; and development of the university’s Sensitive Data Guide to IT Services. He served as Interim Chief Information Security Officer during the 2014/15 and 2017/19 academic years. 

Prior to joining U-M, Sol was the Director of International Privacy at Walmart, and previous to that was Chief Privacy Officer for the State of Ohio. He began his career as Operations Manager of the Technology Policy Group, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Ohio SuperComputer Center and The Ohio State University. He later served as Associate Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Law and Policy Studies at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, and was adjunct faculty in Ohio State’s International Studies Program. 

Sol is active in the myriad higher ed security and privacy communities. He has written numerous publications, including co-authoring “Information Privacy: Official Reference for the Certified Information Privacy Professional.” He also is a frequent presenter on privacy, IT policy and information security at conferences, workshops and forums. 

Sol holds a B.A from Beloit College, a M.A. from the University of Virginia, and a J.D. from the The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.

CV

Pronouns

He/Him

Areas of interest

Privacy, cybersecurity, digital ethics, data governance, IT policy, misinformation/disinformation

Education

B.A., Beloit College (International Relations); M.A., University of Virginia (Foreign Affairs); J.D., The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law