Robert B. Yonaitis
​External Advisor 

Robert “Rob” Yonaitis is Chief Technologist and Founder at BeyData, a company providing technology solutions and services “Beyond Metadata” to harness the power of information and to provide effective data control.   Rob is a computer scientist with more than 20 years of experience as related to information theory, classification and data protection.

Prior to BeyData, Rob was the Chief Research Scientist at AvePoint Inc. As the Architect of the company’s data protection and compliance products, Rob designed and delivered solutions with a “risk-based approach” that won the company accolades and industry analyst recognition. Before AvePoint, Rob was the Founder of HiSoftware, Inc., acquired by Cryptzone in 2014. At HiSoftware Rob performed many roles including CEO, CTO, and Chairman of the Board. HiSoftware provided solutions that allowed companies to manage Digital Inclusion, Privacy, and Cybersecurity of their data and content at rest, in motion and during usage.

Throughout Rob’s career, community has been a core focus of his vision. Believing that research, education and outreach are a meaningful way that a company can “give back” he focused on educational community solutions including, HiSoftware “Cynthia Says”, AvePoint’s “Compliance Detector”, and a Microsoft funded “open source” community kit for building accessible collaboration portals in SharePoint.  Yonaitis also published several books and tutorials to assist organizations in advancing standards and compliance based design, including “Understanding Accessibility”, reprinted for distribution and training by several United States federal agencies. Additionally, in 2014 Yonaitis led a team that Architected, Conceived and Delivered AvePoint’s Privacy Impact Assessment System, which is exclusively distributed by the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

Yonaitis’ technology and software innovations as well as his work in Quality Assurance have received numerous accolades and awards, including the 2002 Da Vinci award for Electronics and Information Technology Innovations that have most improved the lives of People with Disabilities, the Computer Smithsonian Award (Mass Department of Revenue Tax Season 97’ Network, LAN/Wan), and have received recognition from industry Research firms and  analysts Gartner and Hypatia in the Data Centric Audit and Protection, Data Loss Prevention and Governance Risk and Compliance markets.

Rob has been a member and active participant in several working groups, standards organizations and advisory committees, focusing on inclusive and standards based design, data protection, privacy and security. He is a Training Advisory Board Member for the International Association of Privacy Professionals (“IAPP”) and has been a participant/delegate to the United nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) since 2010. He is a Senior Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and has been a past participant with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) working groups related to Digital Inclusion, Evaluation and Reporting and Browser Security indicators.
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Rob holds a Masters in Aeronautical Science with dual specialties in Aeronautics and Space Studies from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. His Capstone was on “the value of manned space flight as related to the positive impact on all citizens”. Rob also holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science from Franklin Peirce College. Rob also holds multiple certifications including but not limited to CIPT and CIPM from the International Association of Privacy Professionals: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonaitis

Email: [email protected]