Empowering Innovation Responsibly: AI-Focused Data Leaders to Watch in 2024

With the race to incorporate AI, and now gen AI, into their business technology toolboxes, data leaders find themselves faced with new opportunities—and challenges. Some CDOs have embraced the added responsibility with new letters in their acronyms, becoming CDAIOs. With or without a new title, most have been tasked with driving AI innovation within their organizations while mitigating risks to reputation and revenues. Walking that tightrope is a tall order. Yet those on the vanguard of responsible AI adoption are creating competitive advantage, differentiation, and business value.

The effort and impact of these data leaders shouldn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated, and so Snowflake is thrilled to announce our “AI-Focused Data Leaders to Watch.” To help spotlight the expanding role of the Chief Data Officer and others with similar responsibilities, Snowflake has identified 50 individuals who we believe exemplify the qualities necessary to advance the data, analytics and AI agenda responsibly.

While it’s not a comprehensive list of CDOs that Snowflake believes are driving change within their organizations, we want to highlight a few who embody the qualities we consider critical to success. These leaders are progressive thinkers, have demonstrated the agility required to adapt to the fast-moving innovation around data and AI, and they are building robust, secure and scalable data foundations to drive innovation, foster collaboration, and prepare their organizations for the future.

The following individuals recognize how essential a solid data foundation is to keep pace with the accelerating AI innovation. 

Here are 50 Data Leaders to watch in 2024:

Amin Venjara, CDO, ADP

Andrew Bonnici, Vice President - Product, Platforms, and Data, IGT PlayDigital

Andrew Curry, CDO, ExxonMobil

Aravind Jagannathan, VP and CDO, Freddie Mac

Arno Huhn, Managing Director Data and AI, Schwarz Group

Ashok Chennuru, Global Chief Data & Insights Officer, Elevance Health

Benoit Reid, Director of Data and Analytics, Altitude Sports

Beth Quinton, VP of Data, Air Canada

Bijoy Sagar, EVP and Chief Information Technology and Digital Transformation Officer, Bayer

Bradley Blyth, CIO, Kmart Australia Limited

Caitlin Halferty, Global CDO, Ericsson

Christopher Cook, CIO, Priority Health, division of Corewell Health

Christian Meyer, Head of Cloud Operations and Chief Technology Architect, Siemens

Danielle Schmelkin, CIO, J.Crew Group

David Bath,CIO, Eutelsat Group

David Dadoun, Head of Data and Analytics, Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP)

David Haney, VP of Data and AI, Cambia Health Solutions

Di Mayze, Global Head of Data and AI, WPP

Diana Hoskins Schildhouse, EVP, Chief Analytics and Insights Officer, Colgate-Palmolive

Diwakar Goel, Global Head of Aladdin Data, BlackRock

Grant Ries, SVP of Data and AI, T-Mobile

Guy Johnson, Global CDO, Belron

Jeff McMillan, Chief Analytics and Data Officer, Morgan Stanley

Jorge Balestra, Global Head Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) and Platforms, Kraft Heinz

Kenichi Sato, Director of Data Science and Engineering, Intage

Kim Macaulay, Chief Information & Data Officer, International Air Transport Association (IATA)

Lidia Fonseca, EVP, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Pfizer

Malcolm Wanstall, VP Data, Cochlear

Mani Upadhyaya, VP of Data and Analytics, 3M

Martin Aylward, Head of Data and CRM, EDF UK

Micheline Casey, SVP and Chief Data & Analytics Officer, Siemens Energy

Mihir Shah, CIO & Enterprise Head of Data Architecture and Engineering, Fidelity Investment

Mike O'Reilly, Head of Global Data & Analytics, Ralph Lauren

Neema Raphael, Partner, Head of Data Engineering & Chief Data Officer, Goldman Sachs

Ogi Redzic, CDO and Head of Cat Digital, Caterpillar

Pawan Divakarla, IT Business Leader, Data, Architecture & Technology Enablement, Progressive Insurance

Perry Philipp, CDO, Entain

Pete Williams, Director of Data, Penguin Random House, UK

Pooyan Asgari, CDO, Domain

Rakesh Srinivasan, Chief Data and Analytics Officer and Head of Consumer Technology, Petco

Rene Grenier, Data & Digital Lead, Cargill Ocean Transport

Rob Smedley, VP of Data Technology, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products

Sheila Jordan, Chief Digital Technology Officer, Honeywell

Teresa Heitsenrether, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Todd James, Chief Data & Technology Officer, 84.51˚

Varouj Chitilian, CTO, Instacart

Vijay Kotu, SVP of Analytics, ServiceNow

Vikrant Bhan, Group Head Analytics, Data, and Integration, Nestlé

Xinyu Huang, VP of Data, FreeWheel

Zachery Anderson, Chief Data & Analytics Officer & Head of Personalisation, Natwest Group

For more on both the potential and the risk of advanced AI, plus trends in cybersecurity and more, check out Snowflake Data + AI Predictions 2024.