CDO Magazine’s Toronto CDO Forum Focus: Closing the Data Skills Gap

The distinguished attendees included (front row): Anu Oladele, Flexiti VP, Data Engineering; Courtney Chambers, Freedom Mobile Director, Data Enablement & Solutions; Anand Persaud, LifeWorks Senior Director, Enterprise Data Analytics and Reporting; Palash Thakur, Interac Corp. Vice President, Data Strategy & Analytics - Chief Data Office; Manoja Manoharan, Interac Corp. Director, Data Strategy & Enablement; Della Shea, Symcor Chief Data and Privacy Officer; Qahir Rajwani, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Director, Data Science and Analytics Solutions; Jainna Patel Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Senior Business Intelligence Analyst; Aida Tahiri, Apotex Senior Director, Enterprise Data and Analysis and Chair, Enterprise Data Office; Mitu Mann, Goeasy Ltd. Data Governance Lead; Anna Hannem, Scotiabank Director, Data Ethics and Use, Chief Data Office; (back row) Jonathan Shver, Apotex Inc. Associate Director, Enterprise Advanced Analytics; Pascal Tyrell, University of Toronto Director of Data Science; Eric Brener, Shaw Communications Vice President, Data Analytics & Solutions; Robert Lutton, Sandhill Consultants VP Sales and Marketing; Hardayal Kalla, Interac Corp AVP-Analytics Delivery and Data Governance; Adele Pugliese, Bentall Green Oak Vice President, Data Enablement and Analytics; and Amanda Carr, Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation Chief Information Officer.

(US and Canada) Following the successful launch of CDO Magazine's Toronto CDO Forum in November, a lunch-and-learn session was held at Sun Life Financial on Dec. 6, 2022.

Featured panelists were Pascal Tyrell, University of Toronto Director of Data Science; Della Shea, Symcor Chief Data and Privacy Officer; David Atkinson, Sun Life Vice President, Data and Analytics; and Aida Tahiri, Apotex Senior Director of Enterprise Data and Analysis. Robert Lutton, Sandhill Consultants Vice President, Sales and Marketing, served as moderator.

Panelists and participants discussed how to mitigate the skills gap in data talent. On the business side, they talked about addressing talent deficiencies from a strategic level and obtaining management commitment and support. On the academic side, key points included preparing students as independent and critical thinkers, managing expectations to enable students to understand the future path, and encouraging students to find and understand the purpose behind their work.

“The December CDO forum was a fantastic opportunity to bring industry and academia together to discuss how to better prepare students for success as they enter the workforce,” says panelist Della Shea, Symcor Chief Data and Privacy Officer. “Actively working together with colleges and universities is a proven strategy to build a talent pipeline, and I look forward to the forum continuing this important discussion at future events.”