Nov 10

What Happened in San Francisco? The IBM CDO/CTO Summit!

On Wednesday, November 9, 2022, the CDO/CTO Summit sponsored by IBM was held in the Union Square Ballroom at the SF Marriott Union Square in San Francisco, USA.

Ranjan Sinha, PhD

The CDO/CTO Summit was kicked off by Ranjan Sinha, PhD, IBM Fellow, VP and CTO, Global Chief Data Office at IBM, who welcomed the delegates.

Liliana Horne, PhD

He was followed by Liliana Horne, PhD, Director, AI Accelerator, Global Chief Data Office at IBM, who introduced the “MIT-IBM AI Lab Study: Economic Attractiveness of AI” study.

The first set of opening keynote discussions was delivered by Dinesh Nirmal, General Manager, Data, AI, and Automation at IBM, and Inderpal Bhandari, PhD, Global Chief Data Officer at IBM on “Data, AI, & Automation: How they are used together to transform the enterprise.”

Dinesh Nirmal and Inderpal Bhandari, PhD

Keynote Discussion

The second set of opening keynote discussions entitled “Data and technology challenges that companies are going to encounter when implementing ESG” was delivered by Inderpal Bhandari, Tanya March, Sustainability Software at IBM, and Nicole Jackson, ESG Data Office Leader, Global Chief Data Office at IBM.

The first panel of the day explored “Data Literacy: First there was computer literacy, now it’s data literacy” and was moderated by Ana Manrique, Vice President, Design, Data and AI at IBM. The panel explored how data literacy is the next evolution of computer literacy, and the four foundations of a data literate organization that facilitate adoption of your data strategy.

Panelists included:

Bernardo Rodriguez, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, J.D. Power
Phanii Pydimarri, Sr Director AI Products (Former), Stanley Black & Decker
Zoher Karu, VP, Chief Data & Analytics Officer, Blue Shield of California

Data Literacy Panel

Delegates then took a break for lunch.

Following lunch, the panelists for “Data Fabric and Data Mesh: A modern data architecture isn’t either a data fabric or a data mesh, it covers both” took to the stage. Panelists spoke about the value that can be delivered with the right architectural approach, why they believe data fabric is the foundation for a data-driven organization, and how data mesh fits into the conversation.

Panelists included:

Ana Manrique, Vice President, Design, Data and AI at IBM (Moderator)
Sibito Morley, Senior Vice President & Chief Data Officer at Lumen Technologies
Keyur Desai: Global VP, Data, Analytics & Artificial Intelligence (former) at Herbalife Nutrition

Data Fabric and Data Mesh Panel

Next up was the panel on “Data Governance, Privacy, Trustworthy AI: How data and AI governance streamlines regulatory compliance and data protection—and paves the way for innovation,” moderated by Betsy Greytok, Vice President, Ethics & Policy at IBM. Panelists did a deep dive into the business value data governance delivers as it expands to address privacy, security, and many aspects of AI—from regulatory compliance to workflow innovations.

Panelists included:

Krishna Venkatraman, Chief Data Officer, Kueski
Jay Franklin, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Data and Analytics, First Tech Federal Credit Union
Ronke Ekwensi, Vice President, Chief Data Officer, T-Mobile

Data Governance, Privacy, Trustworthy AI Panel

After a mid-afternoon break, delegates returned to the main conference room for the Emerging Technology and Trends series.

Inderpal Bhandari, PhD and David Mathison

First Inderpal Bhandari, PhD, Global Chief Data Officer at IBM and Independent Director for Walgreens Boots Alliance, and David Mathison, CEO, CDO Club took on “The Role of the CDO/CTO in Public Company Boards.”

Following that, Inderpal Bhandari was joined by John Buselli, Offering Manager, Research at IBM, and Thomas Ward, AI Project Leader, Global Chief Data Office at IBM, to discuss “Quantum Safe: Addressing data encryption in a post-quantum world.”

The final panel of the day, titled “Building the CDO Organization: Build and run a data office that delivers cross-organizational business value,” covered what it takes to create a CDO office that sets your organization up for success—and the KPIs to prove it.

Panelists included:

Timothy Humphrey, Vice President, Global Chief Data Office, IBM (Moderator)
Danielle Crop, Chief Data Officer, Albertsons Companies
Das Dasgupta, Chief Data & Analytics Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi
Ronke Ekwensi, Vice President, Chief Data Officer, T-Mobile

Building the CDO Organization

The event was wrapped up by Steven Eliuk, PhD, VP AI and Governance, Global Chief Data Office at IBM, before everyone headed towards the networking reception.