Founding Chief Data Officer | Future of Work | Adjunct Professor Carnegie Mellon
Ms. Sagraves is a seasoned financial services executive and leader in data and analytics, the future of work, risk and regulatory management, transformation, strategy, intelligent operations, technology, finance, and marketing.
She has a keen ability to quickly assess complex situations, then develop, lead, and execute innovative and successful strategies to improve performance. Allison has led many functions and key initiatives and is adept at navigating new and ambiguous territory.
Allison has been a featured speaker on the topic of big data, sports analytics, leadership, and transformation and change at numerous industry conferences, TEDx. She also studied and performed stand-up comedy.
What attracted you to data management or IT, and why did you choose to pursue this career?
I have always been interested in solving problems and data is at the heart of addressing many of the problems we face in life, business, and society. It’s funny that at a recent Zoom reunion of my business school class, what the class remembered about me was my presentation of an optimization model I built in managerial economics for a much-feared professor. I have always been interested in math, statistics, and analytics – before my role as CDO – particularly sports analytics. Also, a theme in my career has been to build new capabilities so when we needed to build out a data office, the combination of my business and data background was a natural fit.
What has been your greatest career accomplishment so far, and why has it been important to you?
I am proud to have been the founding Chief Data Officer at our company and one of the early CDOs in industry and was able to get our company established on our data journey as well as promote this role across sectors. I have met so many smart and interesting people in many industries and beyond financial services, am particularly interested in how data can revolutionize health as just one major example. As a pioneer in this industry, I am at a point where I can be of service to others if my experience particularly as a working mother, can be a source of support or inspiration, that means a lot to me. It’s an honor to help others through mentoring, sponsoring, hiring, and getting more people interested in data and in leadership particularly women and people of color. I spend much of my time doing this at work and in life every day.
What are the two or three biggest challenges you face as a data management professional / CDO and how can we address them?
I think we are at a crossroads in integrating data into our everyday decision-making. As a CDO, aligning data strategy to business strategy is key. This is easier said than done but there has been a lot of maturity in the industry and the pandemic has been a big accelerator and a major course in data literacy for everyone. Now I am in a role focused on the Future of Work, a digital economy runs on data so data is truly at the center of everything.
How do you see data management / the role of the CDO / IT changing in the next 2 – 3 years?
The role is increasingly becoming an enabler to the business and value-driven as a result of the growth of analytics and digital. There will be a growing focus in the industry on data products and monetization, as well as an enhanced focus around data privacy and ethics.
Do you have any planned next steps for your career?
Right now, I am focusing on the Future of Work for our company. The tables are turned and now I am a consumer of data. We are at such an interesting point in history as to how work gets done and customers want to be served. We are in the midst of seismic change. Those who adapt and embrace it will be the winners. My interest is in how we approach the future at the intersection of science and humanity.
What is the single best piece of advice you have received in your data management / IT career so far? Why has it been so important to you?
“Everything you do is data.” My professor in business school left us with that advice, at the time the world was largely analog. How prescient this was. He meant that every interaction you have shows the kind of person you are. It was a statement about integrity. It has always been my mantra, and as life unfolded, I ended up as a Chief Data Officer. As Steve Jobs said, you can’t connect the dots forward – you can only connect them looking back.
Tell us something we don’t know about you.
I am the steward of a forest and am very interested in nature, climate, and the critical impact forests have on climate. When I gave a TEDx Talk on Citizen Data Science in 2016, I could never have anticipated that I would be living my life as a citizen data scientist in a forest. Data has been a red thread in my life story.
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