CDO Matters Podcast
How can today’s Chief Data Officers help their organizations become more data-driven? Join former Gartner analyst Malcolm Hawker as he interviews on thought leaders on data fabrics, blockchain and more — and learns why they matter to today’s CDOs. If you want to dig deep into the CDO Matters that are top-of-mind for today’s Chief Data Officers, this show is for you.
Episodes
Executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos are asking for data governance but the data profession wasn't in the room to answer. The gap isn't the business's understanding. It's ours.
📌 In this episode:
Why Donna Burbank found business leaders, not data teams, driving governance conversations at Davos this year
The flip from "data literacy" to "business literacy" and why the old term is judgmental
Donna's "Semantic Pedanticism Fee...
Every CDO is being told to make their data AI-ready. What that actually requires is a harder conversation — and this episode gets into it.
📌 In this episode:
Why vector embeddings alone aren't enough for enterprise AI — and what knowledge graphs provide that vectors fundamentally can't
How the Semantic Web's original vision for open metadata standards maps directly to what CDOs are being asked to build for AI today
Why kno...
Most CDOs talk about data products. Very few approach them the way a product manager would starting with customer need, validating demand, and building only what people will actually use.
📌 In this episode:
Why scalability without proven demand is a bridge to nowhere and how CDOs fall into that trap constantly
What "outside-in" product management looks like in a data function and why it changes everything about how you prioritize
How ...
A Delaware state court ruling rewrote the rules on corporate liability and CDOs are directly in the crosshairs. This is our most-played episode ever, and if you haven't heard it, now's your moment.
📌 In this episode:
What the Delaware Chancery Court ruling means for data leaders and why fiduciary duty now extends to every corporate officer, not just the board and CEO
Why bad data quality is no longer just an operational problem it's ...
Most CDOs are still measuring AI readiness with a BI-readiness checklist and it's costing them. 80 to 90 percent of enterprise data is unstructured, sitting outside every governance program built over the last three decades.
📌 In this episode:
The split Malcolm calls "the world of measurement vs. the world of meaning" and why Gen AI lives entirely in the latter
Why only 25% of the data feeding AI models today is actually governed (pe...
Most organizations are committing serious capital to AI and can't answer a basic question: how much are we actually spending, and on what? That accountability gap is about to close, whether data leaders are ready or not.
📌 In this episode:
Why fewer than 5% of large companies can accurately track AI spend as a distinct category — and what happens when the CFO gets involved
The Vane Loop framework: a quadrant-based approach to s...
Every organization is told they need context for AI to work. Almost none of them know where to start. The answer has been sitting in their metadata all along — but most CDOs haven't connected those dots yet.
📌 In this episode:
Why your data catalog is already a source of context — and how to expose it to agentic workflows today
The semantic layer problem: definitions living in BI tools instead of governed catalogs, and wh...
Most organizations default to replicating data: copying it from source systems into warehouses and lakes so their tools can reach it. Anu Jain, founder and CEO of Nexus One, thinks that's the wrong answer. Malcolm isn't so sure and that's where it gets interesting.
📌 In this episode:
Why the official count of data sources is always an undercount: shadow data, unstructured data, and legacy systems mean the real number is far higher t...
The data and AI landscape shifted more in the last six months than in the three years prior and most data teams are still operating off roadmaps that predate it. Malcolm Hawker goes solo to give data leaders an honest read on where things stand and what to prioritize for the rest of the year.
📌 In this episode:
- Why Gartner's keynote message — that it's okay to be a late AI adopter — is advice Malcolm thinks is neglig...
For a hundred episodes, the data world has been told data is the center of the universe. It isn't — and three of the most credible voices in the industry are finally saying so out loud. Malcolm Hawker sits down with Scott Taylor, Juan Sequeda, and Samir Sharma for a milestone roundtable: why AI isn't Hadoop, why CDOs keep failing for the same reasons, and what it's going to take to survive what's coming.
Data science teams are delivering results — so why do so many projects never make it to production? Malcolm Hawker and Kristen Kehrer, founder of Data Moves Me and former data science leader, dig into the organizational failures behind the disconnect: governance that blocks data access, business stakeholders who hand scientists solutions instead of problems, and why product management may be the missing layer in your data org...
The market for data leaders is growing - but the CDO role itself may be under pressure.
In this episode, Malcolm Hawker and Kyle Winterbottom explore why organizations are questioning data leadership value, how AI is reshaping career paths, and what separates those who advance from those who stall.
If you’re navigating your next move in data, this is a conversation you can’t afford to ignore.
Episode Overview
In this episode of CDO Matters, Malcolm Hawker sits down with Yext Chief Data Officer Christian Ward to explore how AI is fundamentally reshaping the relationship between data and modern marketing.
As traditional playbooks built around search, SEO, and paid media begin to fracture, the conversation dives into what this shift means for CMOs—and why CDOs must step into a far more consultative and strate...
Episode Overview
In this episode of CDO Matters, host Malcolm Hawker speaks with Samir Sharma about the idea behind the Data Strategy Canvas and how organizations can bring more structure to their data initiatives.
They discuss how frameworks can help leaders connect data strategy to real business priorities and improve alignment across teams. The conversation explores practical ways data leaders can simplify complex strate...
Episode Overview
In this episode of the CDO Matters podcast, I sit down with Microsoft’s Karthik Ravindran to unpack what it really means to be “AI-ready” in 2026, and why most organizations are still thinking about data the wrong way.
We explore the collision of product management, governance, and platform strategy, and why AI success will be determined less by models and more by mindset, operating m...
Episode Overview
In this episode of CDO Matters, Malcolm Hawker sits down with Sarah Levy, the CEO of Euno, to unpack why traditional data governance is collapsing under the weight of AI.
They explore how context, metadata, and probabilistic thinking are redefining what “AI-ready” really means - and why CDOs who don’t adapt quickly risk becoming irrelevant.
Episode Links and Resources
Episode Overview
In Episode 93 of the CDO Matters podcast, host Malcolm Hawker sits down with Eric Overby, Faculty Director at Georgia Tech, for a thoughtful conversation on professional development in data.
From building lasting skills to staying relevant as the field evolves, they explore what it takes to grow a meaningful, resilient career in today’s data-driven world.
Episode Links and Resources
Episode Overview
In this episode of the CDO Matters Podcast, Malcolm Hawker lays out his most candid and contrarian predictions for where data, analytics, and AI are really headed in 2026—cutting through the hype to focus on what will actually matter for data leaders.
From the evolution (and fragmentation) of the CDO role to hard truths about AI readiness, governance, and operating models, this episode challenges con...
Episode Overview
The data world loves trends — but most of them don’t survive contact with reality. In this annual Top Ten Trends episode, Malcolm Hawker reflects on the year that was, exposing where data leaders made real progress and where they kept repeating the same mistakes. Expect honesty, uncomfortable truths, and a few sacred cows put out to pasture.
Episode Links and Resources
Episode Overview
In this episode, Malcolm sits down with Jeremi Karnell of InvestNet to explore how the company is transforming six trillion dollars of “digital exhaust” into powerful decision-intelligence capabilities for financial advisors.
Jeremi explains how predictive models, knowledge graphs, and generative AI are reshaping advisor workflows, driving measurable revenue lift, and redefining what modern...
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