Gráinne Hawkes is a Deputy Commissioner at the DPC. Her work centres on managing complex, cross border inquiries and investigations.

From 2023 – 2024, Gráinne was the Data Protection Commission’s first attaché in Brussels. In this role, Gráinne was responsible for the set up and building out of the DPC’s presence in Brussels. She led the DPC’s interactions with Brussels based stakeholders, such as the European Commission, the European Data Protection Board, Members of the European Parliament, Civil Society Organisations and Data Controllers with representatives based in Brussels.

Gráinne first joined the DPC in 2019 and worked as Senior Regulatory Lawyer with responsibility for the management of cross border complaints and complaint based inquiries. As part of this role, Gráinne took up a secondment to the European Commission, working in the cabinet of the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders.

She holds a first class honours LLB from Trinity College Dublin, an LLM from the College of Europe, Bruges and an Msc in Business and Law from the University of Law in London. Prior to joining the DPC, Gráinne trained and qualified as a solicitor with Linklaters in London and Singapore, where she worked as an associate solicitor in dispute resolution (specialising in contentious regulation).