In-Person

New York CDAO Community

Executive Summit

May 6, 2026 | Convene 360 Madison Avenue

May 6, 2026
Convene 360 Madison Avenue

Collaborate with your peers

Get together with New York'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:

AI Transformation Requires Clear Strategy, Collaboration, and Organizational Readiness

Robust Data Foundations and Thoughtful Governance Are Essential

Evolving Role of CDAO and Peer-Driven Learning

New York 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

Andrew Foster

M&T Bank
Chief Data Officer

Glenn Hofmann

MetLife
Chief Data & Analytics Officer

Tembi Hommes

Arup Group Limited
Global Chief Data Officer

Kyle Pudenz

Cencora
SVP, Enterprise Analytics

Andrew Reiskind

Mastercard
Chief Data Officer

Sophie Sergeenko

Heineken USA
Head of Data & Digital Innovation

Gaurav Shah

Opella Healthcare
Global Head of Data, Analytics, and AI

Kendell Timmers

CNN
SVP, Head of Data Analytics, Science & Insights

Jim Young

AIG
Global 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 New York 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

May 6, 2026

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

8:30am - 9:15am  Keynote

Outlast the Average CDAO Tenure

Dee Fitzgerald headshot

Dee Fitzgerald

Global Head of Data & Analytics

Danone

Glenn Hofmann headshot

Glenn Hofmann

Chief Data & Analytics Officer

MetLife

Jessica Hogue headshot

Jessica Hogue

CDO, Consumer Media

Hearst

Gartner characterizes the average tenure of a Chief Data and Analytics Officer as "relatively short" - and that's putting it mildly. Most studies show CDAOs keep their job for one and a half to two and a half years. Whether it's expectations of an immediate transformation, a lack of resources or cultural challenges - how can you overcome these early obstacles to firmly establish yourself within your organization?

Join this keynote presentation focused on:

  • Balancing the drive for impact with understanding your organization's appetite for change
  • Building momentum by collaborating with the right people to champion transformation
  • Strategically choosing which challenges to tackle first and which to postpone for lasting success

9:15am - 9:40am  Networking Break

9:40am - 10:25am  Breakout Session

Back to the Basics - Data that Delivers

Prakash Kamath headshot

Prakash Kamath

Head of AI & Data Engineering

Vanguard Group

Pawan Verma headshot

Pawan Verma

CDO & Head of Data Management Office

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China

Let's take it back to the basics — ensuring that data is accessible, reliable and truly serves business needs. This foundation opens the door to everything else and is key for successful CDAOs.

This session will explore:

  • Aligning data initiatives with your organization's core goals and priorities
  • Anchoring stakeholder discussions in real business use cases to ensure relevance and buy-in
  • Prioritizing strong foundational data management and defining what "good enough" looks like for your business

9:40am - 10:25am  Executive Boardroom

Redefining Data Workflows - Unlocking Automation, Trust, and Agility

Ami Doshi headshot

Ami Doshi

Head of Data Governance & Quality

New York Power Authority

Sarah Rudolph headshot

Sarah Rudolph

VP, Head of Data Capabilities

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Joe Murphy headshot

Joe Murphy

VP, Data & AI Technology

Acceldata

 As analytics and AI adoption accelerates, CDAOs are shifting from reactive data quality to proactive, end-to-end visibility across the data lifecycle. By embedding governance and automation, organizations can scale reliable, decision-ready data products that deliver measurable business value.

Join this session to:

  • Build trusted, enterprise-scale data workflows
  • Enable proactive visibility for scalable data products
  • Automate data reliability for analytics and AI success

9:40am - 10:25am  Executive Boardroom

Designing Data Infrastructure for Competitive Advantage

Glenn Dekhayser headshot

Glenn Dekhayser

Global Principal Technologist

Equinix

AI is reshaping where data needs to live and how quickly insights must be delivered. Many CDAOs are finding that traditional, cloud centric architectures can’t keep pace—especially as increased workloads drive new cost, locality, and sovereignty pressures. Modernization now requires rethinking where data sits, not just how it moves.

Join this session to discuss:

  • How data locality accelerates delivery and operational efficiency
  • When alternative placements outperform single cloud strategies
  • A strategic model for reducing technical debt and unlocking enterprise-wide value

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

Maximizing the Business Value of AI

Shivani Gupta headshot

Shivani Gupta

VP of Data, Analytics & AI

Centric Brands

Prasanna Ramaswamy headshot

Prasanna Ramaswamy

Head of Technology & Data

CPP Investments

The greatest risk in AI isn’t building the wrong solution; it’s solving the wrong problem. Real success comes from identifying opportunities that deliver measurable value by directly connecting AI initiatives to revenue growth, margin improvement, increased speed, or risk reduction. AI is an enabler of strategy, not the strategy itself.

Join this session to discuss:

  • Identifying high-impact AI use cases that matter most to the business
  • Applying product management fundamentals to AI initiatives to drive adoption and results
  • Cultivating the culture for lasting AI success

11:10am - 11:55am  Executive Boardroom

Open Data Infrastructure — Next-Gen Data Architecture

Chris Lawless headshot

Chris Lawless

VP, Global Services

Fivetran

Open Data Infrastructure is essential for organizations in the AI era, helping leaders scale analytics and AI while maintaining control. CDAOs must balance innovation, flexibility and cost as data platforms expand.
Join this boardroom to discuss:

  • Designing interoperable architectures to avoid lock-in
  • Applying openness to semantics, metadata and governance
  • Enabling AI and operations with flexibility and cost transparency

11:10am - 11:55am  Executive Boardroom

Scaling Agentic AI with Trusted Context

 Agentic AI is transforming business, but CDAOs can only scale AI agents as quickly as they can provide trusted, real-time context. Context intelligence is essential, combining data and business meaning for confident scaling.

Join this roundtable to discuss:

  • What are the core data platform capabilities required to serve as a system of context
  • How should you structure your AI strategy to balance innovation speed with accountability and measurable outcomes
  • Which key metrics should you track to assess data readiness for AI


11:55am - 12:30pm  Lunch Service

12:30pm - 1:05pm  Keynote

Operationalizing Agentic AI — The Data Operating Model

Thomas Mazzaferro headshot

Thomas Mazzaferro

Chief Data Officer

Cyera

Many organizations struggle to move AI from pilots to production at scale. Barriers include fragmented data, unclear ownership, and governance not built for agentic workflows. As AI systems act autonomously across the enterprise, speed increases while governance and accountability grow harder to sustain. For CDAOs, this is a leadership moment. Data is the execution layer of AI strategy, and scaling AI requires operating models that align value, trust, and accountability.

Join this session to learn how to:

  • Diagnose why AI initiatives stall and establish readiness
  • Redesign governance for agentic operations
  • Move from pilots to scalable AI programs

1:05pm - 1:30pm  Break

1:30pm - 2:15pm  Breakout Session

Time to Play the AI Governance Game

Rob Bernard headshot

Rob Bernard

Executive Partner, Domains

Gartner

In this session, you will participate in the “AI Governance Game”, in which you will take a role in a high-level simulation of a fictional company designing an AI Governance structure for your company.

You will gain a better understanding of:

  • The advantages and disadvantages of designing an AI governance structure from scratch or extending an existing governance structure
  • The roles and responsibilities of each level of an AI system, from the developers to managers to executives to vendors to external auditors
  • How to integrate these ideas into a AI TRiSM (trust, risk, security management) technology framework


1:30pm - 2:15pm  Breakout Session

Reimagining Self Service Analytics for the AI Era

Matthew Giunipero headshot

Matthew Giunipero

Global Head of Data, Analytics & Insights

Foot Locker

AI is ushering in a new wave of users who can access analytics insights. This transformation brings vast opportunities and significant challenges. When executed well, it equips teams with essential information; when mishandled, it can compromise business integrity.

Join this session to explore:

  • Building trusted semantic models, clear KPI definitions, and unified business metrics
  • Anticipating the decline of traditional dashboards and what’s on the horizon
  • Delivering outputs that are accurate, explainable, consistent, and governed

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

Generative AI — Moving Beyond Hype and Hysteria

Bill Franks headshot

Bill Franks

Analytics and AI Expert, Author

Guest Speaker

Generative AI rapidly emerged from obscurity in late 2022, captivating not only the AI and data science communities but also the wider public. Amidst sensationalism and misinformation, this presentation aims to offer a balanced perspective on generative AI, clarifying its true nature, strengths and challenges. Attendees will gain a clearer understanding of its potential impact on our world and practical applications for both personal and professional endeavors.

Join Bill Franks as he explores how to:

  • Discern real potential amid generative AI buzz
  • Plan the strategic role of AI within your organization
  • Apply generative AI for tangible benefit

3:00pm - 3:45pm  Executive Boardroom

Navigating AI Regulation

Alex Rosenthal headshot

Alex Rosenthal

Global Data Strategy & Governance Leader

PayPal

With rapid advancements in AI technology, understanding the dynamic regulatory landscape is crucial. CDAOs are tasked with developing ethical AI frameworks and best practices that align with business goals. They must also ensure data privacy and security is at the forefront to build trust with stakeholders.

Join this boardroom conversation to discuss:

  • Navigating the evolving AI regulatory landscape
  • Ethical AI deployment and governance
  • Data privacy, security and trust

3:45pm - 4:00pm  Networking Break

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

May 6, 2026

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

Gartner cares about the health and safety of our community. If you are feeling unwell, please refrain from attending the conference. At this time, Gartner does not have any health-related requirements in place for attendance. Should this change, we will follow up with updated guidance.

Location

Venue & Accommodation

Convene 360 Madison Avenue
More Information

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.

Monica Mickelson

Senior Community Program Manager, Territory Specialist

+17577054864

monica.mickelson@gartner.com