Best Selling Author X 2, Keynote Speaker, Innovator in AI, Data & Advanced Analytics.
Senior technology executive leading data science & product teams creating analytics products, models, and applications that drive change. John is a global operational executive who excels at building and managing innovative, growth-oriented data and technology organizations across multiple industries.
His expertise is in dynamically transforming organizations while delivering reliable performance from individuals and teams spanning product development, marketing, revenue generation, strategy, and back-office operations.
Teams under my guidance and leadership have raised their level of execution and have consistently delivered results far above what was previously assumed to be the norm.
As a leader and general manager, John has spearheaded efforts to build and maintain environments conducive to team members coalescing around transformational goals for the attainment of short- and long-term objectives.
What attracted you to data management or IT, and why did you choose to pursue this career?
I started out as a developer of transactional systems. I quickly realized that my interests were in systems of insight and leveraging data to understand how to gain competitive advantage.
What has been your greatest career accomplishment so far, and why has it been important to your career?
Writing and publishing my two best selling books. The books provide a platform to disseminate my ideas and views on data and analytics on a global basis. My 3rd book will be published in mid-2022.
What are the two or three biggest challenges you face as a data management professional / CDO and how can we address them?
- Lack of adoption of the use of data and analytics to drive improvement business operations.
- Executives being territorial rather than collaborative
- The education system not producing technology and data literate graduates.
Time is our greatest ally in the correction of all three of these issues. Data and analytics will drive change and over time the current data averse executives will age out and the newer generation will replace them. Younger people have grown up with data and they innately understand how to use it. We need to drive for improvement in our schools from elementary to university, on a global scale, and this will take time.
How do you see data management / the role of the CDO / IT changing in the next 2 – 3 years?
The tools for data management are improving all the time. I believe that we will see a more holistic view of internal and external data in the next few years. I see great opportunity in data and the multitude of uses for data.
Do you have any planned next steps for your career?
My 3rd book will be coming out in 2022. I am excited for that. I expect to continue to write and teach. Also, I expect to continue to build leading edge applications for predictive, simulation and optimization applications as well as having a hand in creating new technologies for advancing the state of the art in data and analytics.
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?
Early in my career, I was working in the IT department of a large bank, and I wanted to do more with data and analytics. My two mentors told me to quit and find a job in a technology vendor involved in data and analytics and I did.
Can you share something about yourself as a person that people wouldn’t know about you?
Every day and in every situation, I look for ways to help anyone I can. I help return grocery carts for senior citizens at the grocery store. I help push cars that are stuck in the snow. I stop at almost every lemonade stand I see and talk to the young entrepreneurs about why they are selling their wares and ask them about how they are doing. I want to be of service as much as I can.
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