In-Person

Chicago CDAO Community

Executive Summit

October 16, 2025 | Convene at 233 South Wacker Drive (Willis Tower)

October 16, 2025
Convene at 233 South Wacker Drive (Willis Tower)

Collaborate with your peers

Get together with Chicago's top CDAOs to tackle shared business challenges and critical priorities facing your role today. Participate in this one-day, local program with peer-driven topics and interactive discussions with your true C-level peers.

Join your peers to discuss the most critical issues impacting CDAOs today:

Scaling AI and Establishing Value

Developing a Data-Driven Culture From the Top

Ensuring Trust and Reliability in Data for AI Initiatives

Chicago CDAO Governing Body

The Governing Body Co-Chairs shape the summit agenda, ensuring that all content is driven By CDAOs, For CDAOs™.

Governing Body Co-Chairs

Kristina Chambers

TTX
Chief Data & Analytics Officer

Madhav Madaboosi

bp
Head of Digital Transformation, Future Midstream & Strategy

Prasannal Nithyanandam

Volkswagen Financial Services
Head of Data and Advanced Analytics

Sid Raina

Medline
VP & Global Head of Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics

Vijay Rajandram

Northern Trust
Chief Data Officer

What to Expect

Interactive Sessions

Hear from CDAO practitioners and thought leaders on how they're solving critical challenges impacting your role today in Keynote sessions, and join smaller, interactive discussions with your peers in Breakout and Boardroom sessions.

Community Networking

Make new connections and catch up with old friends in casual conversations during dedicated time for networking designed to better acquaint you with your Chicago CDAO community.

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a private, one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

Agenda

October 16, 2025

8:00am - 8:30am  Registration & Breakfast

8:30am - 9:15am  Keynote

One Team, One Vision — Data & Analytics for Impact

Michelle Gansle headshot

Michelle Gansle

CDAO

McDonald's

Wei Manfredi headshot

Wei Manfredi

VP, Global Architecture, Data & Generative AI

McDonald's

Fostering a strong data culture is essential for building trust, enabling cross-functional collaboration and achieving organizational alignment in any large enterprise. By focusing on practical AI applications—such as automation and operational efficiency—organizations can move beyond hype to deliver real business value, grounded in high-quality, integrated data. Collaborative leadership approaches and a “one team” culture help balance innovation with strategic priorities for maximum enterprise impact.

Join this session as Michelle Gansle, CDAO, McDonald's & Wei Manfredi, VP, Global Architecture, Data & Generative AI, McDonald's share ways to:

  • Establish unified governance and standards to strengthen trust and collaboration
  • Implement practical AI use cases to drive measurable business value
  • Foster a “one team” culture to align innovation with strategic objectives

9:15am - 9:40am  Networking Break

9:40am - 10:25am  Executive Boardroom

Future-Proofing Your Data Foundation for AI and Digital Agility

Mike Frasca headshot

Mike Frasca

VP of Product Management

Reltio

As AI adoption accelerates and digital expectations rise, CDAOs face mounting pressure to deliver timely, trusted, and interoperable data. Yet legacy systems, fragmented sources and governance gaps remain major hurdles.

In this roundtable data leaders will explore:

  • Modernizing data foundation for a trusted semantic layer
  • Balancing latency, performance and trust
  • Supporting scalable innovation and transformation

10:25am - 11:10am  Networking Break

10:35am - 11:00am  Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

11:10am - 11:55am  Breakout Session

Governance in Action — Metadata, Data Fabric and Leveraging Generative AI

Ramesh Shurma headshot

Ramesh Shurma

CEO

Orion Governance

As CDAOs continue to grow in their journeys, it is necessary to ensure your data fabric has a solid foundation on the information as well as the barriers in place accessing it. Governance plays a crucial role in establishing and maintaining these barriers, ensuring data integrity and compliance. When we add GenAI into the conversation, how can we leverage this tool to our advantage, ensuring those barriers aren’t compromised? Effective governance strategies are essential to balance innovation with security and ethical considerations. This complex conversation has many considerations, so let's explore them together.

Join this session to learn more about:

  • Overviewing the complexities of Metadata Management
  • Challenging aspects of data fabric as GenAI implementation continues
  • Improving the process of governance models


11:10am - 11:55am  Executive Boardroom

Accelerating AI Value — Transforming Data Debt into Strategic Assets

Today, maximizing the strategic impact of AI hinges on how effectively we leverage our data, converting existing data challenges into powerful enablers for AI-driven outcomes. We'll explore collective experiences and share actionable insights on building a data foundation that truly fuels enterprise AI initiatives.

Join your peers to discuss and share perspectives on:

  • From data debt to AI dividend
  • Architecting for intelligence
  • Bridging the AI-data gap

11:55am - 12:30pm  Lunch Service

1:05pm - 1:30pm  Break

1:30pm - 2:15pm  Executive Boardroom

AI Maturity — Navigating Enterprise Innovation to Impact

Mary Kern headshot

Mary Kern

Vice President, Analytics

Qlik

AI adoption varies widely across organizations—some are just starting, while others are scaling enterprise-wide. But what defines true AI maturity, and how can companies accelerate their journey?

Join this roundtable to discuss:

  • How organizations measure progress
  • What drives successful AI deployments
  • What trends will shape AI adoption

1:30pm - 2:15pm  Breakout Session

Unlocking Business Value with Certified Data Assets

Karthik Josyula headshot

Karthik Josyula

Head of Data and AI platforms

Kohler Co.

Reliable data is essential for business success, enabling confident decisions and effective AI adoption. Certifying key data assets creates a single source of truth, aligning teams and building trust across the organization. Discover practical ways data certification and transparency drive business results and maximize ROI.

Join this session to learn more about:

  • Building organization-wide trust by certifying and standardizing key metrics
  • Empowering better decisions with clear data lineage and quality monitoring
  • Accelerating ROI by aligning business and data teams around trusted data assets

1:30pm - 2:15pm  Executive Boardroom

AI Data Readiness — Empowering CDAOs for Strategic Transformation

Patrick Vinton headshot

Patrick Vinton

Chief Technology Officer

Analytics8

In today's digital era, AI data readiness is crucial for organizations aiming to leverage data-driven insights for strategic advantage. CDAOs play a pivotal role in preparing their companies by enhancing data infrastructure, fostering a culture of innovation and aligning AI initiatives with business goals.

Join this session to discuss:

  • Evaluating and enhancing data infrastructure to support AI integration
  • Balancing data governance with AI policies that encourage innovation without creating risk
  • Aligning AI initiatives with overarching business objectives for sustainable growth

2:15pm - 3:00pm  Networking Break

2:25pm - 2:50pm  Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

3:00pm - 3:45pm  Breakout Session

From Silos to Scale — Building Collaborative and Value-Focused Data Operating Models

Shawn Tumanov headshot

Shawn Tumanov

Data, Model & AI Governance Executive

GEICO

As organizations accelerate their data and AI initiatives, CDAOs are challenged to deliver rapid innovation while maintaining strong governance and delivering measurable business value. Leading executives are designing operating models that enable agility without sacrificing accountability or compliance. Implementing strategies for breaking down silos, fostering enterprise-wide collaboration and building scalable, future-ready data teams is essential for driving sustainable success.

Join this session as panelists discuss: 

  • Current tech stacks and operating models for impactful AI outcomes
  • Approaches for establishing governance frameworks that support business value
  • Best practices for aligning data and AI strategies with organizational goals and success

3:45pm - 4:00pm  Networking Break

4:00pm - 4:35pm  Keynote

Body Language Secrets for Enhanced Executive Presence

Chris Ulrich headshot

Chris Ulrich

Body Language Expert

Guest Speaker

Uncovering the mysteries of body language — how people communicate their thoughts and feelings without saying a word — is a decisive first step toward mastering any business and social situation. Top executives know that detecting split-second signals from your team and leadership then taking immediate action is crucial to being a persuasive communicator and problem-solver especially during tricky internal matters or high-level negotiations.

During this session you will learn how to:

  • Move beyond the vacuum of artificial body language to a behavioral approach based on YOU
  • Strengthen interpersonal relationships, be a more decisive leader and manage your nerves better
  • Uncover the less obvious needs of others and improve your team’s confidence and competence

4:35pm - 4:45pm  Closing Comments and Prize Drawing

October 16, 2025

We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming in-person gathering

Gartner cares about the health and safety of our community. Please review the following recommendations prior to attending the gathering.

Your Community Sponsors

CDAO Thought Leader

Key Sponsors

Program Sponsors

Community Program Manager

For inquiries related to this community, please reach out to your dedicated contact.

Christopher Cresci

Senior Community Program Manager

2816369329

christopher.cresci@gartner.com