As organizations race to become more data-driven, data leaders are confronting a familiar challenge — how to ensure strong governance while enabling fast, flexible data use. “Scaling Data Governance and Enablement Without Slowing Innovation” took center stage at the CDO Magazine Executive Boardroom Dinner in Chicago on April 15.

The event’s panel discussion explored key topics such as empowering business and analytics teams, managing metadata and data lineage across expanding ecosystems, and enabling self-service access with the right guardrails. The exchange reflected a shared objective of building scalable frameworks that fuel innovation while maintaining trust and control.

The panel of experts were:

• Patrick Chew, AIT Worldwide Logistics Vice President, AI & Data Science

• Don Fleschut, Ryerson Vice President, Chief Data Officer

• John Tucker, McDonald’s Director, Enterprise Data Governance

The discussion was moderated by Serge Gershkovich, SqlDBM Head of Product.

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“One thing I appreciate about the CDO Magazine events is the opportunity to connect with peers from so many diverse industries. Learning from their experiences is invaluable to me. If you are a D&A leader in the Chicagoland area, this is a group worth the investment of your time,” says speaker Fleschut.

Speaker Tucker shares his takeaways:

• Speed and stewardship demand an intentional balance: Empowering business and analytics teams to process data swiftly necessitates embedded governance, not centralized control. Essential guardrails include certified datasets, domain-aligned stewards, and trusted lineage sources to enable velocity without compromising quality.

• Metadata emerges as a growing risk area (and opportunity): While everyone builds more pipelines and products, fewer have a sustainable way to govern the associated metadata. Peer CDOs emphasized the need for automation, user-friendly tools, and close partnerships between engineering, business teams, and governance to maintain trust in the data ecosystem.

• Self-service goes beyond tools; it’s a mindset shift: A true self-service culture thrives when roles, responsibilities, and data contracts are clearly defined. This involves curating foundational assets like business glossaries, data catalogs, and reusable models while building trust that governance isn’t intended to hinder team progress.

“AI is no longer just embracing a tool; it is an expectation and soon enough, a required skill and technology,” says speaker Chew. “Start using it carefully and wisely to drive business outcomes!” He mentions key questions for leaders to keep asking as their organizations use AI:

• What problem(s) am I trying to solve?

• What are those priorities against our investments?

• What expected outcomes (value and/or impact) am I targeting?

• Any major immediate risks or issues to remediate?

• When do I know we have arrived?

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Grant Ecker, Ecolab VP, Enterprise Architecture, describes the event as “a great place to meet thought-leading executive peers and to challenge one another in our thinking.”

“The moderator was fantastic, with a focus on facilitating collaboration among the group vs. the dreaded ‘time share presentation’ approach. My sincere thanks to CDO Magazine for growing community and building engagement among my peers in Chicago,” Ecker adds.

A key takeaway that stood out to Prasannal Nithyanandam, Volkswagen Financial Services Head, Data & Advanced Analytics, was “the collective agreement that data ownership and stewardship need to live within the business — not just tech.”

“We all know not all data is useful, and trying to collect and maintain everything can be a costly rabbit hole. The conversation around ‘fit-for-purpose’ data really resonated — it’s all about focusing on what truly drives business value,” Nithyanandam adds.

Sharing her experience at the event, Nithyanandam says it’s “always energizing to be in a room full of fellow data practitioners and peers who get it. Thanks to CDO Magazine for hosting such a thoughtful and engaging evening. I loved catching up and exchanging ideas with so many brilliant minds.”

Nalini Polavarapu, The Hartford VP, AI Platform, Accelerator, & Product, echoes that sentiment: “Insights from CDOs in various industries on their data modernization efforts were valuable, and the humor-filled discussions were enjoyable. Shout out to Patrick!”

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Anthony Losanno, CDO Magazine SVP, Sales, highlights: “CDO Magazine and our sponsor for the evening, SqlDBM, brought together a great group of executives to chat about data governance, AI, and the challenges that each of these leaders face within their respective orgs. It was a great night of insights and networking.”

Summing up the event, moderator Gershkovich says, “It was a privilege to host such an informed and insightful discussion. Learning from the collective wisdom of the panelists and attendees rather than trial and error is what makes CDO events so immensely valuable.”

Special thanks to SqlDBM for their partnership in making the event a success.

* Don Fleschut, John Tucker, Patrick Chew, Grant Ecker, and Prasannal Nithyanandam are members of the CDO Magazine Global Editorial Board.

Executives attending the Chicago CDO Magazine Executive Boardroom Dinner included: 

Allyson Alston, Mars Veterinary Health Global VP, Data & Analytics; Patrick Chew, AIT Worldwide Logistics VP, AI & Data Science; Daniel Cromer, Walker & Dunlop SVP, Product, WDTech; Grant Ecker, Ecolab VP, Enterprise Architecture; Don Fleschut, Ryerson VP, Chief Data Officer; David Hirschfeld, Marsh Chief Data Officer; Julie Huske, Beazley Head, Data Products; Rajiv Kolagani, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago VP, Data & Analytics; Deepak Konale, Northern Trust Wealth Management Chief Data & Analytics Officer; Rama Linga, Goldman Sachs VP, Data, Analytics & Insights; Gokula Mishra, former Direct Supply VP, Data Science; Prasannal Nithyanandam, Volkswagen Financial Services Head, Data & Advanced Analytics; Nalini Polavarapu, The Hartford VP, AI Platform, Accelerator, Product; Jane Rheem, Sidley Austin Chief Data & AI Officer; David Schulz, Salucro Healthcare Solutions COO; Ramendra Singh, Night Market Chief Data Officer; Sharanya Sreenivasan, Glassdoor GTM Analytics; Frank Sung, Loop Capital Markets VP, Data Management; John Tucker, McDonald’s Director, Enterprise Data Governance; Serge Gershkovich, SqlDBM Head, Product; Lindsay Henry, SqlDBM VP, Sales; David Liao, SqIDBM VP, Engineering; Anthony Losanno, CDO Magazine SVP, Sales; Camille Prado, CDO Magazine Global Editor.