Christopher Hoff

Christopher M. Hoff began his appointment as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Services on the first day of the Biden Administration, January 20, 2021. In this role, Mr. Hoff directs the U.S. Department of Commerce’s efforts to create the policy conditions for U.S. digital, financial, supply chain, and other services industries to innovate at home and around the world. To that end, Mr. Hoff seeks to ensure the cross-border flows of data, finance, services and goods on which U.S. companies in every sector of the U.S. economy rely. Mr. Hoff oversees the Office of Supply Chain, Professional and Business Services, the Office of Finance and Insurance Industries, and the Office of Digital Services Industries at the International Trade Administration. The Office of Digital Services Industries manages the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield programs.

Prior to re-joining Commerce, Mr. Hoff had a decade-long legal career in finance, privacy, and international data flows. He began his work in the field of international trade and data flows in one of the offices he now manages, as a presidential management fellow and policy advisor. During his first tenure at Commerce, Mr. Hoff served as chair of the APEC Cross Border Privacy Rules System Joint Oversight Panel and led APEC’s work to finalize the APEC Privacy Recognition for Processors. Mr. Hoff was also seconded to the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection where he served as a staff attorney.

After leaving Commerce in 2015, Mr. Hoff practiced law in the data security and privacy groups at Crowell & Moring and Squire Patton Boggs, two Am Law 100 law firms, advising multinational clients across the country. In between, Mr. Hoff assisted OneTrust, an Atlanta-based global privacy technology company, then a startup and later named America’s fastest growing company, as its director of regulatory affairs. Most recently, Mr. Hoff served as the chief privacy officer and assistant general counsel at Huron, a Chicago–headquartered professional services firm with offices throughout the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Switzerland, India and Singapore.

Mr. Hoff earned his BA in international relations from Grand Valley State University, and his JD cum laude from Michigan State University College of Law. He is a member of the bar of the State of New York, and he is a Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM), as well as a Certified Information Privacy Professional, United States (CIPP/US), and Europe (CIPP/E).