Everyone in our profession attests to the vital importance of Data Governance within our respective organizations. Most will attest to the criticality of supplementing or enriching our zero/first-party data with third-party data. However, these two topics are often addressed in silos, separated by tribal entrenchment. In a union as star-crossed and scorned as Romeo & Juliet, Data Governance and Third-Party Data should be allowed to flourish as one, and we should all celebrate this historic venture of our leading lords and ladies!

Applying Data Governance practices to your third-party data products, organizations can unlock significant hidden potential, such as vendor accountability, data accuracy, enhanced business value, and increased data discovery, integration, and ease of use. This session will provide practical strategies for integrating existing Data Governance practices with Third-Party Data products that will empower attendees to unlock the full potential of their external data partnerships and maximize ROI for these contracts, while maintaining proper control, compliance, trust, and ease-of-use for their customers.

• Ensuring external data meets enterprise data quality standards and satisfies contract expectations
• Aligning third-party data with master and reference data frameworks for accuracy and ease of use
  • Reducing duplication and inconsistency across integrated datasets
• Strengthening compliance and risk management through governance and access-management controls
• Driving innovation while maintaining trust in shared data ecosystems
  • Third-Party Data providence
• Leveraging metadata management, data dictionary, and catalogs to make third-party data sets more visible and accessible to data science and modeling teams.

Speaker: Brian Harding, Business Analysis Manager, Great American Insurance Group

Brian Harding is a Data Governance professional at Great American Insurance Group, serving in this capacity for over eight years. He currently leads a team focused on an Enterprise approach to integrating & governing third-party data; as well as developing, implementing, and managing core Enterprise Data Management practices supporting AI innovation. 

Speaker: Ryan Halevan, Senior Business Analyst, Great American Insurance Group

Hi, I'm Ryan Halevan, a Senior Business Analyst at Great American Insurance Group supporting our Enterprise Data Management function. My work primarily focuses on data governance and the evaluation of third-party data sources, helping teams assess data quality, lineage, risk, and appropriate use across the organization. Here, I partner closely with analytics, claims, information security, legal, and procurement to ensure external data is onboarded and governed in a responsible and consistent way.

I'm also involved in developing and facilitating a cross-functional AI governance program, contributing to reviews that assess how emerging data and AI use-cases may impact business processes, controls, and risk posture. I enjoy simplifying complex governance workflows, collaborating across teams, and helping our business make practical, well-governed use of data and technology.