San Francisco’s brightest data, AI, and analytics leaders gathered at Alexander’s Steakhouse on November 18 for the CDO Magazine Executive Boardroom Dinner to explore strategies and share insights on the theme “How to Drive Agentic & GenAI Impact with AI-Ready Data.”

The event fostered a conversation around aligning data strategy with AI investments, strengthening governance and compliance for GenAI and agentic systems, enhancing data quality, and mitigating bias to ensure ethical and trusted AI. 

The panel of experts were:

• Patrick Bangert, Oxy VP & Chief AI
• Patrick McQuillan, Visa Global Head of AI & Data Governance
• Francesca La O, Early Warning Chief Data Officer 

The discussion was moderated by Informatica’s Manouj Tahiliani, SVP, Product Development, with Krish Vitaldevara, Chief Product Officer and EVP, as co-moderator.

According to McQuillan, the dinner was “Another absolutely ​wonderful event sharing thoughts on the future of AI with some of the finest executives in the Bay! The theme of the evening seemed to be that effective and proactive governance is the key to steering informed innovation, sustained ROI on R&D, and optimized profitability across companies seeking to make AI a fixture in their organizations and offerings.”

Brianna Zhao, Warner Bros. Games Head, Data Insights, shares her key takeaways:

• AI model accountability can be defined through a structured risk matrix and an accountability council.
• When there is no established standard on fairness and bias, it becomes essential to create and uphold our own standards. There’s no one North Star metric; we need to evaluate bias contextually and from multiple angles.

Reflecting on the event, Bangert says, “It’s always great to meet old friends and make new ones over a dinner while learning from each other about best practices, making AI work in the enterprise — from data quality to governance.”

Anthony Losanno, CDO Magazine SVP, Sales, highlights: “It was great to spend some time with members of the always insightful San Francisco community. Discussions around data quality, governance, and AI implementation led to a spirited panel discussion with commentary continuing throughout the meal. It’s always fun to be in the City by the Bay.”

Summing it up, moderator Tahiliani says, “A fantastic evening with our customer community and panel of AI-forward leaders. The discussion made one thing clear: AI is changing how teams operate, make decisions, and create value — but the organizations moving fastest are the ones building strong collaboration between business, technical, and data teams. It was inspiring to see such openness around what’s working, what’s not, and where the greatest AI opportunities lie.”

Special thanks to Informatica for their partnership in making the event a success.

Executives attending the CDO Magazine San Francisco Executive Boardroom Dinner included: 

Patrick Bangert, Oxy VP & Chief AI; Ozlem Bishop, Renaissance Park Corporation Chief DataOfficer; Nabeelah Harris, Visa Director, Data Lifecycle Management; Ercan Kamber, former Angi Chief Data & AI Officer; Seth Kutty, Kaiser Permanente AI & Data Science Leader; Francesca La O, Early Warning Chief Data Officer; Patrick McQuillan, Visa Global Head, AI & Data Governance; John Shields, ETR Director, Data Strategies & Insights; Brianna Zhao, Warner Bros. Games Head, Data Insights; Summar Baldridge, Informatica Manager, Global Events; Gaurav Pathak, Informatica SVP, Product Management; Gopinath Sankaran, Informatica VP, Strategic Ecosystems; Manouj Tahiliani, Informatica SVP & GM, MDM & 360 Applications; Krish Vitaldevara, Informatica Chief Product Officer; Anthony Losanno, CDO Magazine SVP, Sales; and Kim Soldavin, CDO Magazine VP, Events.