CDO Magazine’s exclusive Chicago Executive Boardroom Dinner at the Swift & Sons Steakhouse March 25 hosted senior data, analytics, and AI executives for a panel discussion and group conversation on the theme, “From AI Experiments to Enterprise Execution: The CDO’s Next Challenge.” 

At the center was the transition from AI pilots to enterprise execution, with participants pointing to barriers like fragmented data, trust gaps, and misalignment with business context. The takeaway was clear: unified data, focused use cases, and robust governance are critical to making AI decision-ready.

.The panel of experts were:

• Talal Butt, Generac Power Systems EVP & Chief Information Officer
• Ivana Donevska, BMO Head, US Data, Analytics & AI Risk 
• Guy Michaeli, Oracle Sr. Director, Product Management Data Intelligence & AI
• J.D. Williams, Zoetis VP, Chief Data & Analytics Officer

The discussion was moderated by Ashlesh Bajpai, Oracle VP, Product Management, ERP & SCM Analytics.

Reflecting on the evening, panelist Donevska, says, “The CDO Magazine Executive Boardroom Dinner brought Chicago data executives together with focus on how to make AI investments meaningful and with measurable returns. It was made obvious again that sound data practices and strong executive sponsorship exist at the core of AI’s successful adoption in the enterprise. Meeting trusted industry contacts in the field just adds to the benefit these types of CDO events offer.”

For panel speaker Williams, the dinner was a great forum to exchange ideas with fellow data and analytics leaders who are navigating similar AI adoption challenges at scale. Sharing his organization’s priorities, he says, “Our focus is not just on deploying technology, but on building AI fluency so that every colleague can identify opportunities to apply AI in their own role and workflow. Zoetis is pursuing ‘Unprecedented Productivity’ through AI, embedding it into the way we work across the entire enterprise.”

Expanding on this, Williams notes, “We rolled out ZenAI, our enterprise AI platform, to all computer-based colleagues and achieved over 95% utilization since launch. ZenAI enables AI chat, agent creation, and workflows. To scale adoption, we built a network of 300+ AI Champions, driving grassroots training and sustained engagement across teams.”

Summing it up, Corey Maxner, CDO Magazine Sr. Director, Community & Operations, highlights, “Hosting such a visionary group of data leaders in our Chicago community was an absolute privilege. The depth of our conversations and the shared commitment to driving data-led innovation forward is a true testament to the strength of this community. I left feeling incredibly inspired by what we are building together.”

Special thanks to Oracle for making the CDO Magazine Chicago Executive Boardroom Dinner such a resounding success.

Executives attending the CDO Magazine Chicago Executive Boardroom Dinner included: 

Sooraj Ali, Travelers VP, Enterprise Data, Analytics & AI; Jorge Balestra, Kraft Heinz Global Head, Technical Architecture (Chief Enterprise Architect); Carmin Ballou, ALAS VP, Chief Data & Innovation Officer; Money Bullock, BMO Financial Group Director, Data & Analytics Governance; Talal Butt, Generac Power Systems EVP & Chief Information Officer; Patrick Chew, AIT Worldwide Logistics VP, AI & Data Science; Dan Cromer, Walker & Dunlop SVP,  Product, Data; Das Dasgupta, McDonald’s Global Chief Data Analytics & AI Officer; Ivana Donevska, BMO Head, US Data, Analytics & AI Risk; Anusha Dwivedula, Morningstar Director, Product Management, Analytics; Scott Friesen, Echo Global Logistics EVP, Strategic Analytics; Anil Gutlapalli, Northern Trust Corporation VP & Manager, Enterprise Risk Data & Analytics; Mohammed Sajid Khan, OSI Group Director Head, Global Data & Analytics; Suma Nair, JPMorganChase Executive Director, Data Owner Director; Rahul Pandey, Prosper Marketplace Sr. Director Analytics & Data Science; Michael Patrick, Adtalem Global Education VP, Technology Service Delivery; Eric Petrucci, Rate SVP, Data Office; Xuhui Quan, Analog Devices VP, Customer Experience & Digital Innovation; Sid Raina, Medline VP, AI & Data Analytics; Anand Ramakrishnan, Vantive Director, Data Services Platforms & Delivery; Rashmi Sinha, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine Chief Architect, Innovative Medicine Data Fabric; Frank Sung, Loop Capital Markets VP, Data Management; John Tucker, McDonald’s Global Director, Data & AI Governance; George Wang, FinTank Chief Information Officer; J.D. Williams, Zoetis VP, Chief Data & Analytics Officer; Mir Ali, The Hershey Company Sr. Director & Head, Enterprise Data & AI Platforms; Ashlesh Bajpai, Oracle VP, Product Management, ERP & SCM Analytics; Dana Harder, Unreal Digital Group Partner; Scott Macy, Oracle VP, Cloud Solution Engineering; Guy Michaeli, Oracle Sr. Director, Product Management, Data Intelligence & AI; Barry Mostert, Oracle Sr. Director, Product Marketing, AI & Analytics; Corey Maxner, CDO Magazine Sr. Director, Community & Operations; John Vulopas, CDO Magazine Account Director.