With more than 165 years of operating history, M&T Bank represents the kind of legacy financial institution many enterprises study closely as they modernize data and AI capabilities. Serving customers across the Eastern United States, the bank operates in a highly regulated environment where trust, resilience, and disciplined execution are essential as data becomes a core business enabler.

In this final installment of a three-part conversation, Andrew Foster, Chief Data Officer at M&T Bank, speaks with Parker Thompson, Regional Vice President and General Manager, East at Denodo, about why influence and partnership matter more than authority for modern data leaders. He also outlines M&T’s Data Academy, an initiative designed to drive data literacy, upskill employees, and reduce friction to adoption.

Part 1 of the series explored M&T’s enterprise data strategy, the rollout of AI tools to 17,000 employees, and the governance foundations required to protect customer trust while accelerating value creation. Part 2 examined stakeholder engagement, federated accountability, pacing organizational change, and building credibility through execution.

Edited Excerpts

Q: What lessons have you learned along the way, particularly things that did not work as expected or areas where you had to change course?

Not everything moves at the pace you want. Where we have done a pretty good job is being able to adapt, slow down in one area because we are waiting on something else to happen, and move faster in another area where there is a confluence of circumstances.

It really comes back to this idea that as a CDO, you do not have command-and-control authority across the organization. You rely on partnerships. One thing our team has done well is look for momentum that others are already creating and help them deliver a better outcome. In doing that, we benefit from the momentum they are generating.

If you look at a microcosm of everything we have worked on, not everything is a success, and not everything moves as fast as we would like. What I am comfortable with is that we have pivoted our attention at the right time toward the things that are moving faster.

That does not mean bouncing around from one thing to another. It is about making structured decisions as you go. The bank operates very much within an agile framework, planning quarter by quarter and leveraging that approach. That way of working has helped us a lot.

Q: Can you explain the Data Academy initiative and why it has been such a priority for you?

The CDO role is not about command or control. You need influence. A big part of that influence comes from upskilling people and giving them the opportunity to increase their human capital and make themselves more valuable.

We launched a centrally funded Data Academy that is free at the point of consumption. The goal was to remove as many friction points as possible that could prevent people from taking advantage of it. From there, we brought in multiple learning options. That includes in-person instruction, asynchronous learning, and partnerships with platforms like Pluralsight and Udacity.

So far, about 2,000 people across the bank have participated, and that matters because a large part of a CDO’s role involves data governance. Governance often gets associated with compliance, and compliance often comes with the reaction, “Do I have to do this?” The answer is yes, you do.

What we want to do instead is build a relationship where not every conversation is compliance-driven. We want it to be a value-add conversation. The Data Academy has been incredibly valuable as a constant form of communication, a constant form of giving, and a way to help people upskill while reinforcing why governance matters.

Q: Who participates in the Data Academy?

There are no boundaries around who can attend. You do tend to see people involved in analytics and reporting roles, but the breadth of offerings is wide. It can be as simple as spending an hour learning how to build better Power BI or Tableau dashboards, or as extensive as completing a 60-hour Udacity course to upskill in Python or data science.

You see a broad range of people who have an interest in improving their data skills. Much like AI, which is impacting nearly every role today, being better at data in some form is never a downside for anyone in the organization.

We also include elements of gamification. It is not just about learning for learning’s sake. We want to celebrate that behavior. We want to recognize people who are curious, who invest in themselves, and who are constantly looking to build new skills. Those are the people we want across the organization.

CDO Magazine appreciates Andrew Foster for sharing his insights with our global community.