People - The Forgotten Key to Successful Data Governance

In this session, Ben Fox will draw upon his experience in numerous roles spanning the data lifecycle to demonstrate how relationship-building and behavioral adjustments are critical to building strong data governance. From analyst to developer and from manager to executive, Ben has learned, often the hard way, that data governance is as much about people as it is about data. 

Ben defines and addresses the areas in which both data and people can play a key part in success. Although business intelligence and machine learning initiatives can reveal valuable and actionable insights for business leaders, the ability to identify, locate, use, and trust the data that generates those insights is fundamental to deriving any business gain from that data. Ben hopes to illustrate how establishing positive data behaviors in an organization, in tandem with solutions such as a comprehensive data catalog, are the building blocks to data governance success for any organization.

In this presentation, Ben will touch on:

• How talking about data matters (even when you’re not talking about data)
• How to drive engagement in your data governance efforts
• Why you need to establish a data governance community 
• Which tools are most helpful - and how to get the most out of them

Speaker: Ben Fox

Ben Fox has worked with data for most of his adult career. After serving in the US Army, Ben went on to work for data-driven organizations such as Toyota Financial, Washington Mutual, Disney, Activision Blizzard, and, most recently, Electronic Arts. Ben has authored the book, “Cooking with Business Intelligence” and many articles focused on key learnings from his years working in data. A true believer in the teaching power of failure, Ben is always willing to discuss the impact his most remembered failures have had on forming his philosophy on data. He lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife and two children.