First CDO Magazine Atlanta Leadership Dinner Centers on GenAI Business Impact

CDO Magazine’s inaugural Atlanta Leadership Dinner on October 9 brought together prominent area data executives to explore how GenAI is reshaping industries, transforming business operations, and elevating workforce capabilities.

The event revolved around the topic “How to effectively harness the power of GenAI,” with leaders delving into key areas such as optimizing processes, boosting innovation, and enhancing productivity. Executives shared perspectives on the tangible outcomes and measurable impact GenAI has brought to their organizations, as well as the ethical, legal, and technical challenges they must navigate.

Sharing her experience, Mallory Freeman, UPS VP, Enterprise Data & Analytics, says: “UPS is proud to be a tech leader in Atlanta, a global hub for innovation. I’m excited to see Atlanta business leaders come together to learn from each other and get creative about how we can use AI to deliver value for our businesses, customers and communities. Data and AI will continue to play an increasingly large role in how we serve our customers, and we'll keep being thoughtful in our approach to creating and leveraging AI tools.”

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On behalf of the Atlanta data leaders, Sudipto Ghose, Equifax VP, Data Analytics & AI, thanks CDO Magazine for making the professional bond tighter. Ghose describes the event as a “splendid evening at a great setting for the data leaders of Atlanta to have engaging conversations on a broad range of GenAI topics. The leaders shared personal stories as icebreakers and made the event memorable.” 

Mabby Amouie, Norfolk Southern Corporation AVP, Enterprise Data & Analytics, agrees: “We hosted a highly successful event with a strong attendance of esteemed data and analytics professionals in Atlanta. The discussions were candid, insightful, and thought-provoking, with participants sharing their perspectives on Generative AI and its potential to revolutionize their businesses and industries. Looking forward to the future events.”

Yingying Kang, Assurant Director, AI & Data Science, thanks CDO Magazine, the board, co-chairs and the local community “for fostering such a supportive and inspiring network.”

“It was a great pleasure to join the Atlanta AI and Data leaders for an engaging discussion on how GenAI can transform our daily life and business operations,” Kang adds. ”The discussion highlighted opportunities for revenue growth, customer experience improvements, and enhanced productivity and quality, while also acknowledging challenges like data quality, governance, and ethical concerns. We hope to continue working together to establish an ecosystem where these cutting-edge technologies can be responsibly and seamlessly applied for the public benefit.” 

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According to Brenna Julianus, ThoughtSpot Regional Director, the topic of the evening made way for a lot of engaging dialog. “It was great hearing collective thoughts and real life examples from data leaders on where they are generating value, measuring that value and harnessing tangible business outcomes, all while mitigating challenges or concerns that they, too, in parallel are facing in the adoption of GenAI within their respective organizations.” 

Julianus further shares her “biggest takeaways” from the event:

1. Artificial first, Intelligence later, meaning that initial stages of AI development may focus more on performing tasks that imitate human intelligence without truly embodying it; not to say that it can't get there as models learn and evolve, but AI will follow our lead. Keeping the human in the loop.

2. The biggest challenges or concerns that are top of mind:  

   • Bias and fairness: Implement rigorous data auditing and use diverse datasets all while regularly testing models.

   • Transparency and explainability: Clearly educate and communicate with stakeholders about how GenAI systems function and what data they use; building a culture of collaboration and AI literacy is key.

   • Data quality and availability: Invest in data governance programs to maintain high-quality datasets to ensure accurate output.

3. Align GenAI with strategic business goals. Like any important initiative, one must clearly understand and identify where GenAI can drive the most value. In parallel, setting clear and measurable objectives and KPIs that link GenAI to business outcomes (such as cost savings, revenue growth, customer satisfaction) is crucial for truly harnessing the power of GenAI.

Summing up the event, Steve Bangsund, CDO Magazine Sr. Director, Programs, says: “Our inaugural Atlanta Data Leadership Dinner was an outstanding evening of top leaders coming together to network and collaborate around the topic of Gen AI. This is a testament of the commitment our Co-Chairs and Executive Board members have to grow the CDO community in and around Atlanta! Thank you to all who were able to attend this great dinner.”

Special thanks goes to ThoughtSpot, FullStory, Cloudera, and InCorta for their partnership in making the event a success.

*Mallory Freeman, Sudipto Ghose, Mabby Amouie, and Yingying Kang are Co-Chairs of the Atlanta Executive Board. Ghose and Amouie are members of the CDO Magazine Global Editorial Board.

Executives attending the CDO Magazine Atlanta Data Leadership Dinner included: 

Mabby Amouie, Norfolk Southern Corporation AVP, Enterprise Data & Analytics; Sarang Bapat, Mitsubishi Electric Trane US Director, Data Analytics & Governance; Suvranil Basu, Acadia Director, Analytics & Data Science; Tim Berryman, former Georgia Pacific VP, Head, AI; Jose Milton Buitron, Kimberly-Clark Head, Data & AI CoE; Xiquan Cui, Home Depot Sr. Manager, Data Science & Machine Learning; Marcy Cunningham, IHG Head, Information Governance; Dipti Desai, Global Pay SVP, Data Management & Enablement; Mallory Freeman, UPS VP, Enterprise Data & Analytics; Kofi Frimpong, BrandSafway Sr. Manager IT, Data & Analytics; Rajendra Gangavarapu, Pathward SVP, Credit & Portfolio Analytics; Marsal Gavalda, Clarity AI CTO; Sudipto Ghose, Equifax VP, Data Analytics & AI; Anil Gullapalli, Northeast Georgia Health System ITS Director, BI & Analytics; Mitch Isaacs, Warner Bros. Discovery VP, Data & Monetization Strategy; Robert Jackson Travelport Director, AI/ML Engineering; Imtiaz Juneja, Macy's Director, Data Engineering & Architecture; Yingying Kang, Assurant Director, AI & Data Science; Roderick Lewis, Wells Fargo Data Management; Mariano Maluf, Kimberly-Clark Global Head, Digital Innovation; Priya Malhotra, OneTrust Director, Product, Data & AI Governance; Samantha McConnell, Cox Communications Director, AI & Digital Strategy; Meg McIntosh, Inter Continental Hotels Group VP, Commercial Insights, Analytics & Data; Gerson Morales, BrandSafway VP, Enterprise Technology & Digital Operations; Kartik Pillai, Yum! Brands RSC Director, Data Strategy; Vadim Radinsky, MediaNews Group Director, Product Analytics, Data Science; Rama Ryali, McKesson Sr. Director, Automation; Tej Savant, Carrier Director, Global Data, Analytics & Reporting, Global Operations Lead; Ameet Shetty, Equifax Head, Enterprise Data Strategy; Zakaria Siddiqui, Colonial Pipeline Head, Data Science & Platform; Pankaj Singal, Goldman Sachs CDO, Platform Solutions; Olga Sudvarg, Invesco Global Head, Data Strategy & Delivery; Kenneth Viciana, Total System Services VP, Global Data & Analytics Products; Keith Werle, Georgia Institute of Technology Business Analytics Center Managing Director; Samuel Ahlbrand, Incorta Account Executive; Lee Dallas, FullStory Head, Sales Engineering; Luis Figueroa, Cloudera Sr. Solutions Engineer Leader; Jordan Helwagen, FullStory Sr. Account Executive; Brenna Julianus, ThoughtSpot Regional Director; Gregory Lutz, FullStory Offering Manager; Soundarya Pondichery, Cloudera Solutions Engineer; Phil Simpson, FullStory Offering Manager; Jake Walker, ThoughtSpot Sr. Director, Customer Education & Enablement; McKenzie Ward, ThoughtSpot Revenue Executive Staff; Steve Bangsund, CDO Magazine Sr. Director, Programs, Franklin Kessler, CDO Magazine SVP, Program Management.