Kantara Initiative Europe Appoints Ruth Puente As Director To Support Growth in Operations

Mittetulundusühing (non-profit organization) Kantara Initiative Europe Headquartered In Estonia Sustaining Significant Growth In R&D Funding Projects.
WAKEFIELD, Mass., USA – March 26, 2019 — Kantara Initiative, the only industry organization focused on 3rd party assessed digital identity and privacy assurance frameworks, announced today the appointment of Ruth Puente as a Director of the organization in its recently opened European headquarters.
Kantara Initiative Europe is a non-profit organization headquartered in Estonia and is an independent entity from Kantara-branded US organizations and uses the Kantara trade mark and intellectual property under license from United States-based Kantara Initiative, Inc.  Kantara’s European headquarters focuses on supporting European Union (EU) digital identity and privacy initiatives in particular, research and development funding projects. The headquarters office is located in Tallinn, Estonia.
Kantara Names Ruth Puente Director
One of three Kantara directors, Ruth Puente will manage grant funding operations for the European headquarters.  She started with Kantara in 2014 and continues to manage its respected Kantara Trust Framework Operations Program, alongside Kantara Europe’s role in NGI_TRUST, a consortium comprising Fraunhofer IAO, GÉANT amongst others, to cascade funds downstream to innovative projects in the domain of privacy and personal data. Kantara Europe is engaged with two other consortia in the European Commission’s H2020 calls for proposals.
“Kantara Initiative Europe gives members a solid presence in mainland Europe and a clear path forward for digital identity and privacy projects relating to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ePrivacy, eIDAS (electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market) and other emerging services,” said Colin Wallis, executive director, Kantara Initiative.  “Ruth’s role will be to oversee the various R&D grant funding projects planned and those currently in process through Kantara.  Her experience gained in managing the Kantara Identity and Privacy Incubator (KIPI), a trust-oriented R&D program operated with Rutgers University and its Command, Control, and Interoperability Center for Advanced Data Analysis (CCICADA) initiative, has proven invaluable in Europe.”
“This is a good move for EU-based members working to enhance trust in digital identity as it will bring Kantara’s assurance and trust mark programs as well as Kantara’s Consent Receipt and User Managed Access specifications much closer for EU-based organizations to access and use” said Robin Wilton, co-founder,  Kantara Initiative Europe. “This will make it much easier for Kantara and EU stakeholders to drive collaborative innovation, in programs such as Horizon 2020 and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.”
About Kantara Initiative
The Kantara Initiative is the leading global consortium improving trustworthy use of identity and personal data through innovation, standardization and good practice. Kantara is internationally acknowledged for its development of specifications, applied R&D and conformity assessment programs for the digital identity and personal data ecosystems. More information is available at https://kantarainitiative.org/.
Follow Kantara Initiative on Twitter — @KantaraNews
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For further information:
Kantara Initiative, Inc:
Bob Olson, Virtual, Inc.
+1.781.876.8839
rolson@virtualinc.com