PwC US has officially acquired the assets of Minnesota Privacy Consultants, including the company’s privacy professionals and network.
MPC helps multinational corporations, government agencies, universities and nonprofits find their sensitive data, classify it, control it and systematically retire it. Founded in 2006, MPC specializes in privacy compliance, including healthcare and cloud computing.
With the closing of the deal, MPC’s founder and president, Jay Cline, along with his entire staff of data protection and privacy professionals, as well as the tools and methodologies of the company’s Twin Cities Privacy Network, will become part of PwC’s Risk Assurance practice. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“At a time when well-publicized cyber security threats and data privacy breaches have underscored the critical nature of these issues to both businesses and consumers, the addition of MPC will further strengthen and expand PwC’s Data Protection and Privacy resources,” said Dean Simone, leader of PwC’s US Risk Assurance practice. Simone also noted that those threats and breaches have spurred rapid regulatory focus and growing demand for risk assessment and assurance services.
“Working together with MPC’s team of seasoned professionals and our talented staff within our Risk Assurance practice, we will leverage the Company’s solutions to drive further inroads in key risk arenas, such as IT and Project Assurance and Performance Governance Risk and Compliance,” Simone added. “MPC’s highly relevant experience and tools will enable us to pursue greater opportunities for our combined businesses, while delivering even higher quality service to our clients.”
The acquisition of MPC brings to PwC a team of risk assessment consultants specializing in difficult areas of privacy compliance including health care, cloud computing and European-privacy protection compliance. MPC helps multinational corporations, government agencies, universities, and nonprofits identify, classify and control their sensitive data.
The acquisition also includes the methodology and benchmarking tools of Twin Cities Privacy Network, a large regional network of privacy professionals. The group comprises corporate leaders and practitioners from legal, compliance, audit, IT, information security, and other departments charged with protecting their organizations’ personally identifiable information.
“Since our founding eight years ago, we’ve gradually grown our practice and network by delivering high-quality risk assessments, tools and policies across a blue-chip base of clients,” said Cline, who joined PwC as a principal in the transaction. Cline will help lead PwC’s national Data Protection and Privacy practice by building out its service offerings to address the next generation of privacy risks, and by recruiting and developing a deep bench of talent in the privacy arena.
“Our vision is to build an infrastructure of trust for our clients,” Cline added. “I look forward to working with my new PwC teammates to pursue these extraordinary opportunities.”
