CDO Magazine’s Executive Boardroom Dinner at the Girl & the Goat in Los Angeles on June 26 brought together senior leaders in data, analytics, and AI to engage in a focused conversation around the theme, “From Insight to Autonomy: Rethinking Enterprise Data Strategy in the Age of Agentic AI.”

The discussions highlighted a shared understanding among enterprise leaders: unlocking the value of AI starts with disciplined data practices and purposeful alignment to business outcomes. They emphasized the need for robust data foundations, where quality, governance, and accessibility are tightly connected to AI use cases that drive measurable impact.

As generative and agentic AI enter the enterprise mainstream, attendees explored how organizations can mature their data models while maintaining trust, transparency, and ethical oversight. The conversation reinforced that experimentation is vital — but without cross-functional alignment and a culture that encourages critical questioning, scale and sustainability remain out of reach.

Sharing his experience, Greg Townsend, AltaMed SVP, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, says, “It was a pleasure to meet up with my peers again to dive into those things that enable the value of AI to be unlocked in our organizations. Key among those things are source data staging and alignment of data quality to our AI use cases that will deliver the highest value yield for our organizations. Lots of great discussion about how we can leverage agentic AI as we mature the data models needed to bring those tools to life. Another great evening with the CDO Magazine community!“

Building on Townsend’s energy, Deepak Jose, Niagara Bottling VP, Head of Data & Decision Intelligence, says, “Loved the engagement between peers in the industry. To truly scale AI across the enterprise, we must invest in a robust, connected data foundation — one that enables secure, seamless access to insights and accelerates innovation. As we deploy generative AI, our priority is to deliver measurable business value while upholding the highest standards of governance and trust.”

Myra Chen, Capital Group Director, VP, Insights & Analytics, says that it is “inspiring” to engage with fellow data and AI leaders at CDO Magazine’s dinner events. “Since the inaugural dinner two years ago, this community has continued to grow — bringing together voices from healthcare, finance, education, entertainment, technology, and beyond. Last night’s gathering was no exception. The conversations around AI were not only timely but also thought-provoking. Leaders shared success stories of AI adoption across industries, while also exchanging ideas on how to guide organizations in making ethical, responsible, and impactful AI decisions,” Chen adds.

Chen shares her takeaways:

• Experimentation is essential, but so is cross-functional alignment to scale responsibly.
• Culture still matters — building trust in AI begins with empowering people to ask hard questions and engage with transparency.
• Agentic AI is on the horizon, and now is the time to define how it can augment, not replace, human judgment.

Steve Bangsund, CDO Magazine Sr. Executive Program Director, highlights, “The Southern California community came together again for a great evening of networking and top-of-mind topics around Data and agentic AI. It is great to see and hear from this growing community of top leaders about how important these meetings and discussions are. We are excited to see how much more growth we can have working together for meaningful conversations in the future.”

Summing up the event, Phil Simpson, Fullstory Chief Revenue Officer, says, “To build truly agentic AI, enterprises must move beyond dashboards and begin relying on deep behavioral data to orchestrate complex processes and navigate multi-step workflows with precision. The takeaway was clear: the future of data strategy is autonomous, not just analytical.”

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

*Greg Townsend and Myra Chen are Co-Chairs of the SoCal Executive Board. Deepak Jose is a member of the SoCal Executive Board. Townsend, Chen, and Jose are members of the CDO Magazine Global Editorial Board.

Executives attending the CDO Magazine Los Angeles Executive Boardroom Dinner included: 

Goutham Budati, The Farmer’s Dog VP, Data Strategy & Insights; Vera Carey, Rexford Industrial Director, Data Engineering & Analytics; Patrick Chen, MLK Community Healthcare VP, Population Health Strategy & Innovation; Myra Chen, Capital Group Director, VP, Insights & Analytics; Nitesh Dhingra, Capital Group VP, Data Science; C. Julius Hahn, Keck Medicine of USC Director, Enterprise Data Analytics & Business Intelligence; Deepak Jose, Niagara Bottling VP, Head, Data & Decision Intelligence; Kiran Kanetkar, Cencora Gen AI Executive Advisor; Saydulu Kolasani, Fisker Chief Digital Information & Technology Officer; William McBride, Cetera Financial Group VP, Data & Analytics; Rajeev Mehrotra, Western Dental & Orthodontics Head, Information Technology; Siva Penasany, Fisker VP, Data & AI; Chintan Shyani, Jaanuu COO & SVP, Operations & Analytics; Jay Tomkins, Thrive Market Head, Analytics & Data Engineering; Greg Townsend, AltaMed Health Services SVP & Chief Data & Analytics Officer; Keelan Yang, LendingUSA VP, Data, Analytics, & Governance; Andre Davidson, Fullstory Sr. Enterprise Account Executive; Bryan Head, Fullstory Regional VP, Strategic Sales; Gabrielle Mazaltarim, Fullstory; Adrianna Ross, Fullstory Field & Events Marketing Manager; Phil Simpson, Fullstory Chief Revenue Officer; Steve Bangsund, CDO Magazine Sr. Executive Program Director.