CDO Magazine’s Leadership Dinner at Abe & Louie’s on December 4 brought together Boston’s brightest senior data, analytics, and AI minds to exchange insights and strategies on the topic of “The CDO’s New Year’s Resolution: Ensuring Your Data is Ready for GenAI.”

The discussions centered around preparing teams for new AI-driven workflows through focused training and communication, establishing strong governance and ethical guardrails to ensure responsible use, and defining clear goals and metrics to drive meaningful, measurable impact in upcoming GenAI initiatives.

CDO Magazine thanks the Co-chairs of the CDO Magazine Boston Leadership Dinner for their outstanding leadership and commitment:

• Kishore Aradhya, Frontdoor Head, Data Engineering & Architecture
• Justin Heller, Synchrony SVP & Chief Data Officer
• Barbara Latulippe, Takeda Head, Enterprise Data, CDO
• Nachiket Mehta, The Hartford VP, AI & Data Engineering
• Jane Urban, Improzo Chief Data & Analytics Officer
• Krishna Valluru, Fidelity Investments VP, Advanced Strategies & Research Tech

Co-chair Valluru reflects, “When we first started this community, we had about 15 members. This time we welcomed nearly 50 attendees, a growth of over 230%. It was inspiring to see such diversity in the room, with leaders from non-profits and for-profits, spanning industries from pharma to insurance to educational institutions.

“We had engaging conversations about the real-world challenges leaders are solving today, and how GenAI will reshape all things about data in the future. Events like the CDO Magazine Boston Leadership Dinner remind us why collaboration matters as we prepare for 2026 and beyond,” he adds.

Attending for the first time, Chad Wright, Boston Dynamics Chief Information Officer, says, “I was very impressed. Beyond the amazing food and venue, the people and conversation were genuine and insightful. It was a casual evening of making new connections and discussing what’s most important to our work in Data, AI and Cybersecurity. I left the event feeling energized and thankful for living and working in such a vibrant technical community. I look forward to the next event!”

Sharing that the energy in the room was “incredible,” Co-chair Mehta says, “You could feel how seriously leaders are treating the shift toward getting their data ready for the new era of agentic AI. It’s rare to see this much alignment on both the technical priorities and the cultural changes needed to make it real.”

For Mehta, what really stood out was how openly everyone talked about the balance between building the right foundations—RAG, vector search, embeddings—and building the right mindset across their teams. “Technology matters, but the culture around it decides whether it actually lands,” he adds. “Our table kept coming back to one idea: AI should augment people, not replace them. The future is a blend of human skill and digital agents working together, and you could sense a lot of optimism about that future.”

Further, Mehta loved how the CDO Magazine Boston community connects people who are thinking ahead: “Conversations jumped from data readiness to Hollywood’s vision of AI in films like ‘WALL-E’ and ‘Minority Report.’ It reminded me that imagination often leads the way before technology catches up. I’m grateful to be part of a community that’s growing with purpose. Events like this show how much momentum there is behind the next generation of data leadership,” he says.

From her perspective, Trang Nguyen, Prudential VP, Data Science, says, “Organizations are taking different approaches to AI governance: some have few guardrails in place, while others, especially those in highly regulated industries, have extensive ethical guidelines and oversight. The next frontier will be leveraging AI to evaluate the ethics of AI solutions themselves to improve speed and stakeholder experience. Overall, these guardrails and governance structures aim to ensure AI is used safely, responsibly, and in ways that maintain trust.”

Nguyen shares her key takeaways:

• Actively listening to employees’ concerns and questions to understand their needs
• Providing responsible AI training to build confidence and skills
• Communicating how AI will impact their roles and future workflows.

According to Meghan Barrett Welch, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Chief Data Officer, it was energizing to meet like-minded professionals across numerous industries in the Boston area. She says, “Being new to the city, I felt like not only did I meet new professional connections across the data, analytics and AI spaces, but I met people who will become friends. We had thoughtful, strategic conversations about the role of AI and data in delivering business value, and what our roles are as leaders in the field to make that happen and to build trust. 

“The prompts were a nice starting point but the true highlights were in the honest conversations we got to have with each other about our challenges as technologists and leaders. I left the dinner feeling like I had found my community and my people in Boston. As a member of the Executive Board, I’m truly excited and honored to help foster that experience for others in the community as well,” she adds.

Jenna George, CDO Magazine Program Director, highlights, “Our Leadership Dinner in Boston was a fantastic way to end 2025! The conversations surrounded ensuring data is ready for GenAI as we look forward to 2026. Our executives also dove into how they are ensuring teams and processes are aligned for a successful new year.”

Summing up the evening, Devin McPherson, ThoughtSpot Customer Success Leader, NA Commercial, says, “We spent a wonderful evening making new friends and sharing experiences. A connecting thread in conversations was that AI is coming and we are not doing it right … yet. Hearing about progress and successes (or failures) helped everyone get on a better path. It was gratifying to see how ThoughtSpot’s reliable AI enabled platform aligned to so many leader’s goals.”

Special thanks to ThoughtSpot, Coretek, Acceldata, Starburst, and Cohesity for making this event a success.

*Kishore Aradhya, Justin Heller, Barbara Latulippe, Jane Urban and Krishna Valluru are members of the CDO Magazine Global Board.

Executives attending the CDO Magazine Boston Leadership Dinner included: 

Israel Abraham, Tangent LLC VP, Founder; Kishore Aradhya, Frontdoor Head, Data Engineering & Architecture; Meghan Barrett Welch, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office, Energy & Environmental Affairs Chief Data Officer; Randy Bean, Data & AI Leadership Exchange CEO; Nitin Chawla, Schneider Electric Sr. Director Architecture; Jane Chen, American Tower VP, Data & Analytics; Denise Cheung, InfoBeans SVP, Design & Innovation; Kam Chinta, Accertify Global Director, Big Data & ML Ops; Michael DiBenedetto, Northland Chief Information Officer; Usama Fayyad, Northeastern SVP, AI & Data Strategy; Steven Fransblow, Blue Square Alliance Against Hate Chief Data & Technology Officer; Ashwini Ghogare, Amazon Web Services GenAI Leader for Start-ups, Life Sciences and Healthcare; Clyde Gillard, HPE AI GTM Leader, North America; Ravindra Harve, Boston College Enterprise Data Architect; Justin Heller, Synchrony SVP & Chief Data Officer; Lei Jiang, Johnson & Johnson Sr. Manager; Sravan Kasarla, Commonwealth Financial Network Chief Data Officer; Rama Korada, Liberty Mutual Sr. Director; Carsten Krause, Schneider Electric Head, Architecture Practice; Eric Lamy, On Location Director, Data Products & Operations; Barbara Latulippe, Takeda Head, Enterprise Data, CDO; Michelle Li, MIT Sloan Business Analytics Director; Jennifer McGhee, Wipfli Head, Data Management & Governance; Nachiket Mehta, The Hartford VP, AI & Data Engineering; Lakshmanan Meyyappan, Ph.D.,Starbucks VP, Data Science & Enterprise AI; Anupam Mishra, Tripadvisor Sr. Director, Analytics & Data Science; Chris Moss, Bose Head, Data & AI; Dave Murray, Welch’s Head, AI & Data; Trang Nguyen, Prudential VP, Data Science; Manish Nigam, Ameriprise Financial Services Sr. Director, AI; Tasneem Nipplewala, MassMutual Head, Architecture, Data, Cyber & AI; Bhagyesh Phanse, Starbucks SVP, Chief Data & Analytics Officer; Seth Proctor, Tranquil Data CEO; Kenneth Rispoli, Analog Devices Sr. Manager, AI; Peter Rogers, Merkle EVP, Head, Data & Technology; Brian Rotondo, The TJX Companies VP, Data & Analytics; Kasun Samarasinghe, Northeastern University Adjunct Professor; Joseph Santos, Zoominfo Head, Data Advisory; Andrew Schwartz, KalVista Pharmaceuticals Chief Information Officer; Anu Sundaram, Rue Gilt Groupe VP, Analytics, Experimentation & Insights; Colleen Tartow, Capital One Sr. Director, Data Engineering; Isa Terzi, former Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance SVP, IT; Shin-pei Tsay, City of Boston Chief Research & Data Officer; Jane Urban, Improzo Chief Data & Analytics Officer; Krishna Valluru, Fidelity Investments VP, Advanced Strategies & Research Tech; Frank Waldron, State Street VP, Technology Risk; Barbara Widholm, State Street VP; Chad Wright, Boston Dynamics Chief Information Officer; Ramon Chen, Acceldata Chief Product Officer; Tyler Costello, Cohesity Sr. Director, Strategic Sales; Russell Dougan, ThoughtSpot Director, Corporate Communications; Andy Fleszar, Coretek Digital Sales Executive;  Michael Garrett, Acceldata Account Executive; Devin McPherson, ThoughtSpot Customer Success Leader, NA Commercial; Matthew O’Keefe, Starburst Data Enterprise Account Executive; John Quintana, Coretek Sales Development Representative; John Resch, Starburst Data Sr. Account Executive; Ben Seehousen, Salix Data Regional Director; Jeff Williams, ThoughtSpot Enterprise Sales Leader, Northeast; Molly Baab, CDO Magazine Chief Operating Officer, CPO; Amy Gazelle, Data Society Group Account Director; Jenna George, CDO Magazine Associate Program Director; Anthony Losanno, CDO Magazine SVP, Sales; Corey Maxner, CDO Magazine Director, Client Success & Digital Operations; and John Vulopas, CDO Magazine Sr. Account Director.