Cameron F. Kerry is the Ann R. and Andrew H. Tisch Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a global thought leader on privacy and cross-border information flows. Previously, Kerry served as general counsel and acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he was a leader on a wide of range of issues including technology, trade, and economic growth and security. During his time as acting secretary, Kerry served as chief executive of this Cabinet agency and its 43,000 employees around the world, as well as an adviser to former President Barack Obama. His tenure marked the first time in U.S. history two siblings have served in the president's Cabinet at the same time.

As general counsel, he was the principal legal adviser to the several Secretaries of Commerce and Commerce agency heads. As co-chair of the National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on Privacy and Internet Policy, Kerry spearheaded development of the White House blueprint on consumer privacy, Consumer Data Privacy in a Networked World: A Framework for Protecting Privacy and Promoting Innovation in the Global Digital Economy. He then led the administration's implementation of the blueprint, drafting privacy legislation and engaging in privacy issues with international partners, including the European Union. He was a leader in the Obama administration’s successful effort to pass the America Invents Act, the most significant overhaul of the patent system in more than 150 years. He helped establish and lead the Commerce Department's Internet Policy Task Force, and was the department’s representative on cybersecurity issues and similar issues in the White House “Deputies Committee.” Kerry also played a significant role on intellectual property policy and litigation, cybersecurity, international bribery, trade relations and rule of law development in China, the Gulf Oil spill litigation, and many other challenges facing a large, diverse federal agency.  He travelled to the People's Republic of China on numerous occasions to co-lead the Transparency Dialogue with China as well as the U.S.-China Legal Exchange and exchanges on anti-corruption.

In addition to his Brookings affiliation, Kerry is a visiting scholar at the MIT Media Lab. He also served as senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP in Boston, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., where his practice involved privacy, security, and international trade issues. Before Kerry’s appointment to the Obama administration in 2009, he practiced law at the Mintz Levin firm in Boston and Washington and taught telecommunications law as an adjunct professor at Suffolk University Law School.