Resources

This exclusive infographic offers an anonymised, high-level snapshot of the senior retail data leaders who attended the 2026 CDO Retail Exchange. Explore the real makeup of the room from job titles and leadership seniority to functional priorities and organisational diversity.

Designed to help you prepare smarter, this preview reveals who's driving data strategy, analytics transformation, and digital innovation across retail today. Download now to fine‑tune your messaging, personalise conversations, and ensure your solutions speak directly to the data decision‑makers that matter most.

Discover who attends the CDO Retail Exchange - download this one‑pager for exclusive insights.

Unlock exclusive opportunities to connect with senior data leaders through the CDO Exchange Partnership Programme 2026. Designed for solution providers and innovators, this programme offers year-round visibility across our global portfolio of CDO Exchanges in the US, UK, and Europe.

By partnering with us, you’ll gain direct access to Chief Data Officers, Heads of Data, and senior executives from banking, financial services, insurance, retail, and healthcare. Benefit from bespoke branding, tailored networking, thought-leadership sessions, and guaranteed introductions to decision-makers with active projects and budgets.

Whether your focus is AI, governance, cloud, or analytics, the CDO Exchange Partnership Programme 2026 is your platform to build relationships, showcase expertise, and influence the future of data-driven enterprise.

👉 Explore the partnership opportunities today and position your brand at the heart of the global data community.

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.

Discover the key conversations shaping the future of retail data and AI.

The CDO Retail Exchange 2026 Post Event Report captures the biggest insights, trends, and challenges discussed by senior retail data leaders from leading brands across the UK. From agentic AI and conversational analytics to data governance, trust, and modern data platforms, this report reveals how organizations are turning data initiatives into measurable commercial value.

Download now to access expert takeaways, industry benchmarking, audience insights, and practical strategies for scaling AI with confidence.

Discover how high-growth retail brand Huel transformed its data strategy with Snowflake, unlocking faster insights, empowering teams with self-serve analytics, and saving over 200 hours per month. A practical case study in turning data into real business impact.

Retailers face soaring costs, competition, and high customer expectations. Effective data utilization is crucial for navigating these challenges. Traditional retailers can learn valuable data strategies from modern e-commerce platforms. Stefan Kühn, an experienced data leader, shares insights on how traditional retailers can adopt agile data practices to drive innovation and growth.

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 Retail 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 transscript to learn how two leading CDOs are transforming governance from plumbing into strategic power ahead of the CDO Retail Exchange UK. 

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 Retail Exchange UK - there's no better reading to be done. 

The CDO Europe 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 the future.

The seismic shift triggered by the rise of e-commerce platforms has fundamentally changed consumers’ shopping behaviour and expectations. With online shoppers valuing speed and convenience more than ever, e-commerce retailers must optimise their online customer journey pathways accordingly. Download the article for insight into:

• How adopting techniques like predictive modelling and regression analytics can help retailers better understand their customers and provide tailored customer experiences
• Why omnichannel strategies are key to creating seamless customer journeys which can boost sales for retailers
• The power of word of mouth, and how retailers can harness online reviews and social media influence

This report from Informatica seeks to understand what strategies data leaders are adopting to overcome AI roadblocks. Download the report to find out:

• What percentage of data leaders are already capitalising on generative AI and how they are using it
• The top challenges data leaders face when implementing generative AI
• Data leaders’ plans for reskilling and upskilling to support future AI and data management strategies

As more and more businesses strive to establish a data-driven culture at all levels, many data leaders have started to examine how a data mesh strategy can help them to achieve their aims. As a decentralised data architecture, a data mesh allows easier access to data for end users, making data a shared responsibility rather than being managed by a centralised data team. This interview with Delivery Hero’s Director of Engineering Sean Gustafson covers:

• The benefits of using a data mesh and the results that Delivery Hero has seen
• Best practices for scaling a data mesh architecture
• Overcoming resistance to change when leaving behind established processes
  

With businesses increasingly recognising the importance of a solid data strategy to help them achieve meaningful growth, having the right individuals to drive data-driven transformation is critical. This article draws on the insight of four data leaders in retail who discuss how to hire and retain talent in data when competition for qualified candidates is so high. Download the article for insight into:

• How to refine your recruitment strategy to attract the right talent 
• The importance of company culture and job satisfaction for retention
• The importance of soft skills in data roles