Data Services and Data Management Expert | Data Governance | Supply Chain Management | Digital Transformation
Customer focused and results-oriented technology executive with deep knowledge and experience in technology and organizational transformation. Expertise in building big data platforms, data lakes, cloud data warehouses, and transforming legacy data warehouses to modern, cloud-based data platforms.
Expertise in agile software product development. Entrepreneurial, innovative, and metric-driven with a record of building and delivering software products and services for travel, messaging, healthcare, food service, e-commerce, and supply chain management markets.
What attracted you to data management or IT, and why did you choose to pursue this career?
At university I was studying Chemical Engineering. At one point I was working for the department of chemical engineering doing modelling and analysis of data for coal/oil slurry technologies to determine if it was possible to burn coal more cleanly. As part of that work, I became fascinated with programming and computing and applying computation to solving real world problems. I became more interested in computing than in Chemical Engineering and switched my major to Computer Science. That fascination still holds today.
What has been your greatest career accomplishment so far, and why has it been important to your career?
One of the first projects I worked on at Texas Instruments as a Software Design Engineer while waiting for a security clearance, was with a small team working on a factory automation information system. That project lasted almost 18 months and I learned a tremendous amount about networking, integration, embedded systems, systems architecture, design, and systems thinking. I also learned a great deal about small team interactions and how powerful small teams can be in producing great products. Many of those lessons learned in that first assignment taught me things I draw upon today and they still serve me well. Our team delivered an automated circuit board assembly and repair system delivering software across several embedded systems, micro, and minicomputers networked together that surpassed other similar systems in code production and quality.
What are the two or three biggest challenges you face as a data management professional / CDO and how can we address them?
Data quality and data delivery. These are the two aspects of our data platform that we focus on and keep top of mind. It is challenging to develop and maintain a data platform that provides excellent data quality and consistent data delivery all the while ensuring that the data is both safe and secure. We focus on process automation to support both challenges. Data pipeline automation, monitoring and recoverability are the focus of our Data Reliability Engineering practice.
How do you see data management / the role of the CDO / IT changing in the next 2 – 3 years?
Data has become a more significant asset in the enterprise. It will continue to play a crucial role in the future growth of companies. As such, the role of the CDO will continue to be challenging because demands on that asset will continue to increase. It is still true today that many organizations only use a small fraction of the data they have throughout their organizations. Developing the ability to make more data available consistently and at high quality and learning how to develop partnerships with other data providers will be the key to enabling data assets to provide the engine for future growth.
Do you have any planned next steps for your career?
I am currently enjoying my role supporting ARC through its transformation program. There are many new data products we have in development, and we are looking to partner with other data providers to expand our data to provide better services to our customers.
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?
Persistent patience pays off. There are so many technologies, tools, and techniques out there that it is easy to become overwhelmed or distracted by the next shiny object. Keep it simple and solve the problem at hand and continue to evolve your service offering based on customer feedback.
Can you share something about yourself as a person that people wouldn’t know about you?
I enjoy travel and food. When my wife and I plan a trip, we usually use food experiences as a driver for our plans. With the world opening back up this year, we are looking forward to resuming our passion for both.
If you have any questions about this interview, or if we can be of any service, please do not hesitate to contact us info@ewsolutions.com
