Leadership Moves
Written by: Aster Bancod, Executive Communications, CDO Magazine
Updated 7:30 AM EDT, October 23, 2026

CDO Magazine’s weekly Leadership Moves roundup highlights key executive appointments and organizational changes across data, analytics, technology, and artificial intelligence.
Each week, we track the executives taking on leadership roles including Chief Data Officer (CDO), Chief AI Officer, Chief Information and Digital Officer, and other enterprise technology positions across major global organizations.
For the week of October 19, highlighted in this edition, we feature key leadership updates at CVS Health, Elevance Health, and Prudential Financial, alongside several other notable appointments recently spotlighted on CDO Magazine.

Elevance Health has elevated Venkat Alladi to Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Commercial Health Benefits. Alladi previously served as Staff Vice President, Technology at Elevance Health and held technology leadership roles at Anthem, Truven Health Analytics, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. In his new position, he leads the technology organization responsible for advancing digital, data, and AI capabilities across the company’s Commercial, Specialty, FEP, and AmeriBen businesses.

CVS Health has appointed Jack Hanlon Senior Vice President, AI & Analytics, supporting its pharmacies and retail stores. Hanlon joins CVS Health from Meta, where he served as a product leader in Meta Superintelligence Labs, following previous executive roles as Vice President of Feeds, AI, Search, and Data at Reddit and Vice President of Analytics & Insights at Walmart. In his new role, he will translate AI capabilities into scaled customer and health experiences across CVS Health’s retail footprint.

Prudential Financial has expanded Robert Sala’s role to Chief Information Officer, U.S. Businesses & Enterprise Functions. Sala previously served as Head of Technology for US Businesses, Global Chief Technology Officer, and Global Chief Architect at Prudential. In his expanded capacity, he is responsible for technology strategy, delivery, architecture, and technology risk across the firm’s U.S. businesses and enterprise functions.

Little Caesars Pizza has named Michael Edwards Vice President, Global Data & Analytics. Edwards joins the company from United Wholesale Mortgage, where he served as Senior Vice President of Data & AI and Vice President of Enterprise Data, building cloud lakehouse architecture and generative AI teams. He will lead enterprise data, analytics, data science, BI, engineering, and governance across the global organization.

Mohsen Ghasempour, Ph.D., Morrisons Chief AI Officer
Morrisons has named Mohsen Ghasempour, Ph.D., Chief AI Officer, reporting directly to CEO Rami Baitiéh. Ghasempour joins Morrisons from Kingfisher plc, where he served as Chief AI Officer leading AI strategy across European retail brands, and previously led machine learning teams at THG. In his new role, he will help build the retailer’s AI capability across AI, data, insight, and digital media to drive its enterprise transformation.