CDO Manufacturing & Logistics Post‑Event Report

The inaugural CDO Manufacturing & Logistics Exchange brought leaders from across the industry together for two days of valuable insights. The post show report the delivers a strategic, data‑driven overview of the insights shaping modern manufacturing and supply‑chain transformation. Built around the core themes of strong data foundations, pragmatic modernization, cross‑functional alignment, purpose‑led innovation, and measured value, this report captures the most impactful discussions and real‑world lessons shared by industry leaders.

Explore how organisations are strengthening metadata, governance, and data quality to unlock AI‑ready operations; navigating legacy complexity through modular, high‑impact improvements; and driving transformation by empowering people, clarifying roles, and building trust across business, IT, and operations. The report also highlights how purpose‑first innovation accelerates adoption, avoids fragmentation, and ensures AI solutions deliver meaningful, sustainable outcomes.

With a focus on measurable impact - from efficiency and risk reduction to user satisfaction and adoption - this report serves as an essential resource for data leaders seeking to elevate manufacturing performance, modernize logistics, and scale AI with confidence.

Stay ahead of the game and gain the crucial insights from the report now. 

Unlock the CDO insights every modern data leader needs.

In this exclusive CDO Chronicles Part 2 transcript, Chief Data Officers Loulou van Ravensteijn and Shruti Sharma dive deep into the realities of today’s data leadership - from redefining the CDO role to navigating AI governance, organisational maturity, stakeholder alignment, and the evolving relationship between CDOs, CIOs and emerging Chief AI Officer roles.

If you’re a data leader tasked with shaping strategy, driving culture change, or embedding enterprise‑wide intelligence, this conversation is packed with the hard truths and practical wisdom rarely shared publicly.

Download the transcript to explore:

• Why the CDO role is misunderstood, and how top leaders are reshaping it - Learn why today’s CDOs are strategic decision‑shapers, not dashboard owners, and how to articulate your value in the C‑suite.
• How to break the “paper‑tiger strategy” cycle - Gain actionable insights on aligning data strategy to organisational outcomes - and executing it with resilience.
• The truth about working with CIOs, CTOs and new Chief AI Officers Discover how boundaries are shifting -  and why thinking in terms of “shared intelligence ecosystems” is the future.

Packed with clear, honest reflections from leaders operating at both government and charity scale, this transcript is the must‑read resource for any CDO, CDAIO, or aspiring data executive navigating rapid change. Engage with more of these honest conversations at the highly anticipated CDO Manufacturing Exchange. 

Unlock the realities of modern data leadership in The CDO Chronicles Composed: Data Governance as a bottle neck - an unfiltered, peer‑to‑peer conversation between Shruti Sharma (Chief Data & AI Officer, Save the Children UK) and Loulou van Ravensteijn (Chief Data Officer, Provincie Gelderland).

This snippet of the launch episode of The CDO Chronicles dives into the toughest challenge facing today’s data leaders: making data governance work in the real world.

Senior data leaders will gain practical, hard‑won insights on:

• Selling data governance to the board - including how to answer the critical “So what?” that unlocks investment.
• Building organisation‑wide accountability - from defining roles and responsibilities to embedding impact frameworks that make data ownership tangible. “Our policies say that all directors are actually data owners… but then how do we make that more strategic?”
• Operationalising governance at scale - including data catalogues, metadata standards, lineage, and role‑based access models that actually work. “If you don’t know what data you have, how can you hold people accountable?”
• Using AI to automate the ‘boring but critical’ foundations - and turning governance from a burden into an enabler.

This is essential readings for CDOs, CDAOs, and senior data leaders navigating first‑generation data strategy, organisational alignment, and the pressure to deliver AI responsibly. Download the full transcript to learn how two leading CDOs are transforming governance from plumbing into strategic power ahead of the CDO Manufacturing Exchange. 

Unlock powerful insights from two leading voices in data and AI transformation in The CDO Chronicles – Part 3. In this snippet, Shruti Sharma, Chief Data & AI Officer at Save the Children UK, and Loulou van Ravensteijn, Chief Data Officer at Provincie Gelderland, dive deep into the real-world challenges and opportunities facing today’s data leaders.

Explore how first‑generation and second‑generation CDOs build data strategies from the ground up, establish governance frameworks, and drive organisation‑wide data literacy. Learn how they navigate the first 100 days, create non‑invasive data governance models, build communities of practice, and deliver quick wins that prove value fast.

This episode offers practical guidance on stakeholder management, data ownership, operating models, and the resilience required to lead data transformation in complex environments. Whether you're a new CDO, an aspiring data leader, or a business executive looking to understand the evolving role of data, this conversation delivers actionable insights you can apply immediately.

Ahead of the highly anticipated CDO Manufacturing Exchange - there's no better reading to be done. 

A Conversation with Nicolas Nikula, Director - Analytics, Processes, Systems & WFP, Fiskars Group on Context, Data, and Business Value

In a world where organisations are increasingly awash with data, the real differentiator isn’t volume, it’s context. Nicolas Nikula, an experienced data and analytics leader, sat down with us to discuss how data professionals can make their work matter more to the business. From aligning with strategic priorities to bridging communication gaps across departments, Nicolas offers grounded advice that’s both actionable and refreshingly human.

The CDO Chronicles is the go‑to podcast for data leaders looking to engage in the critical peer-to-peer conversations of the challenges data leaders face today. 

Each episode brings together standout voices in data strategy, AI, digital identity, and customer experience transformation - offering practical, behind‑the‑scenes conversations with CDOs, analytics leaders, fraud experts, and enterprise architects who are shaping the next era of data‑driven business. Our first episode with Loulou van Ravensteijn Director of FRAQTER and Chief Data Officer of Provincie Gelderland, and Shruti Sharma Director of Data and AI at Save the Children UK sets the tone for the series: honest, unfiltered discussions about the challenges, opportunities, and realities facing today’s data leaders. Dive in and see where the future of data is really headed.

In today’s fast-evolving data-driven landscape, the role of the CDO is undergoing an unprecedented transformation. As data tools and capabilities evolve, CDOs need to be able to wear multiple hats as they balance staying up to date with rapidly changing technological advancements while also keeping the business’ wider data strategy and goals front of mind. Download this report to gain key takeaways from our expert audience.

The CDO Manufacturing Exchange is pleased to release its 2025 Book List, specially curated for data and analytics professionals. Whether you’re looking to learn more about the latest concepts in data management, hone your leadership skills, or simply read for pleasure, we hope that some of the chosen books will make it onto your reading list for 2025.

Rafid Denha, Global Head of Transformation – Compliance Data, HSBC

Unlock the true value of your data investments.

This interview with Rafid Denha, Global Head of Transformation, HSBC, reveals how leading organisations are transforming their data strategy - balancing innovation, compliance, and business value. Discover the frameworks, cultural shifts, and resource priorities that drive successful data transformation, plus practical lessons from over a decade of delivering data‑driven change in highly regulated industries. 

Tableau has developed the Data Culture Playbook to guide executives and data leaders in how to mature data usage across the organization in a way that ensures value is being created where and when it is needed most. The playbook lays out a phased approached to build, run, and expand your Data Culture.

• Data lake origins and challenges including hybrid data integration, multiple data source platforms, and lakes both on premises and in the cloud.
• Real-time integration, with change data capture technology that integrates live transactions with the data lake.
• Rethinking the data lake with multi-stage methodology, continuous data ingestion and merging processes that assembles a historical data store.
  Leveraging a scalable and autonomous streaming data pipeline to deliver analytics ready data sets.

As data increasingly emerges as the currency for innovation and competitive advantage, it is essential to build a modern and agile data ecosystem that will support and augment business-decision making. A robust strategy that treats data as a strategic corporate asset is crucial to maximising its value across the business. But as digitalisation proflerates and the world becomes more connected than ever, businesses are grappling with an overwhelming volume and variety of data.

This begs the question: where should you begin in formulating a vision and strategy that connects the disparate parts of the data puzzle to unlock enhanced decision-making capabilities? In this session, Rob McKendrick shared how The Co-Op is building a strategy that places data at the core of the business to both drive internal operational efficiencies and foster improved customer outcomes.

• Moving from federated to centralised operating model to break down functional and data silos
• Aligning your data vision to the creation of customer value
• Embedding trust and ethics into your approach to data usage in order to build transparency

Rob McKendrick, Head of Data Governance and Management, The Co-Op

The explosion of data being generated, curated, and shared within organisations in recent years has brought with it unprecedented risks. As consumers and regulators alike are becoming more concerned with the misuse of data, the question of ethics and inherent societal bias in data has been thrust into public consciousness. High-profile data breaches have proliferated over the past few years, so it is crucial that organisations create ethical data practices in order to avoid the astronomical consequences of a breach, not just from a financial point of view, but also from a reputational perspective.

This panel discussed how to navigate the complexities of data ethics in order to foster a trust-based, transparent approach to data and analytics.

• What are the key risks that organisations need to be aware of regarding the ethics of data and AI?
• What metrics/procedures can be put in place to ensure that you can both understand and mitigate your risks?
• How can you ensure that customers have a transparent view of how their data is being used?
• How can you navigate the risk of unconscious societal biases?

Speakers on the panel:

• Sudip Trivedi, Head of Data and Analytics, London Borough of Camden
• Mahesh Bharadhwaj, Head of Europe Analytics, Funding Circle
• Dan Gilbert, Director of Data, News UK
• Nina Monckton, Head of Data Strategy, Advanced Analytics and Data Science, AXA Health
• Moderated by Robin Sutara, CDO, Microsoft