Celebrating our top Data Citizens of 2020

data citizen: A data citizen is any person who relies on access to trusted data to perform job responsibilities, make business decisions and ultimately drives business transformation. 

Each month, we put a spotlight on a data citizen (or two) who exemplifies excellence and expertise in the data community. As we close out the year, we took a look back at who we celebrated in 2020, and their valuable tech tips, insights and learnings that they’ve shared with us – and we wanted to simply say thank you

Do you have what it takes to be a Data Citizen of the Month? Nominate yourself or a colleague by completing this challenge in the Data Citizens community with a snapshot into your world, or a favorite learning or insight.

Want to connect with these and other data citizens? Join the Data Citizens community today! 

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Ashish Haruray, Senior Center of Excellence Lead, Data Governance, AXA XL

January 2020

Ashish Haruray is Senior Center of Excellence Lead, Data Governance at AXA XL who faced the challenge of data transparency.

“Collibra has played an important role in our journey to build data transparency within our organization. It helps our users connect the dots and supports our desired self-service model, eliminating the need for a middleman and allowing them to focus on their real work.”

In this video, Ashish discusses how he helped AXA XL solve a major business problem by partnering with Collibra to create data transparency among business users across the enterprise. Data citizens at AXA XL can now use the Collibra Platform as a one-stop-shop to find trusted data, increasing efficiency and data-driven decision making across the organization.

Ron Layne, Director of Data Management, George Washington University

February 2020

Ron Layne is Director of Data Management at George Washington University, driving Collibra’s use cases, workflow and adoption across the university.

“It’s night and day after implementing Collibra. Before, governance did not exist and now it does. Working closely with the Collibra team throughout this process has been crucial to our success and we are excited to see what’s in store for the future and with our partnership Collibra.”

Watch the video

John Lieto, Director of Data Management, Wolters Kluwer     

April 2020

John Lieto is Director of Data Management at Wolters Kluwer. When Wolters Kluwer first began its company-wide digital transformation, John seized the opportunity to kickstart a journey to Data Intelligence. From recognizing a problem to aligning with stakeholders, learn how John made it happen.

Read about Wolters Kluwer’s Data Intelligence journey

Brian Engel, Principal DataOps, Squerist / Collibra Application Expert, ASML

May 2020

Brian Engel is principal of DataOps at Squerist. He currently has an assignment at ASML as Collibra Application Expert in Veldhoven in the Netherlands. 

Brian’s top tech tip: Mapping the data

“Map your logical data model on the Collibra data model, so you can easily see the differences or similarities. Stick to the Collibra data model as much as possible. In this way, you can use Collibra functionalities and you won’t have to develop them on your own. Keep it simple.”

Paul Carey, Manager, Data Management, HSBC

June 2020

Paul Carey is Manager of Data Management at HSBC in New York. He is an active member of the Data Citizens community and earned his Collibra Ranger Certification in 2020. 

Paul’s top tech tip: Give your data context!

“Here are 5 questions to ask to give context to your data and add value to the business:

  1. What is your data? Make sure you have a common understanding of business terms.
  2. Why do you care about it? Link to one or more business processes.
  3. Where do you care about it? Link common business terms to where they are physically located.
  4. How much do you care? Link to the impact or opportunity to your business and put it on a scale to help you prioritize.
  5. Is it fit for purpose? When you know what it is, why you care and its impact, then you know the desired quality to add value to your business.”

Santosh Karthikeyan Viswanathan, R&D Data Foundation Lead, AstraZeneca

July 2020

Santosh Karthikeyan Viswanathan is the R&D Data Foundation Lead at AstraZeneca. He has been actively engaged in the Data Citizens community and participation in the Collibra COVID-19 Data Catalog Advisory Panel, providing valuable feedback and helping in the continued development of this resource. 

When asked how he would use this resource in his own organization, Santosh shared:

 “I have already shared the COVID-19 Data Catalog with my data community and would like to get collective feedback for meaningful insights. Early feedback will be a handy reference to get a view around the business glossary and access to open data sets for further analysis.”

If you would like to access the Collibra COVID-19 Data Catalog and give us your feedback, visit the Data Citizens community.

Brenda Boelter, Senior Professional, Data Governance, CoreLogic

August 2020

Brenda Boelter is Senior Professional, Data Governance at CoreLogic, and shared her five practical steps to create an enterprise-wide data catalog. The first step? 

Know thy Audience. The first thing that you want to do is gather your requirements. What is it that people want to know about your data? You must interview your potential users to determine what is needed.”

Tune in for all of Brenda’s tips to learn more. 

Jonda Joseph, MBA, PMP, CSM, Data Governance Manager of Enterprise Analytics, Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin

September 2020

Jonda Joseph is Data Governance Manager of Enterprise Analytics at F&MCW, responsible for leading and managing all enterprise-wide data governance activities. She shared how she’s helped drive growth within their data governance community:

By educating the communities on foundational governance concepts and practices, we’ve helped build transparency, trust and credibility. And engaging leaders has empowered them to be responsible for assets within their own communities.”

To learn more about Data Citizenship and Governance at Froedtert & the MCW, watch the recording of a presentation with Jonda and her colleagues, Fahad Bijle, Director, Enterprise Analytics and Data Strategy, and Bridget Lewandowski, Senior Data Governance Analyst. For those of you in healthcare and life sciences, you may also connect with Jonda and other Data Citizens by visiting the Data Citizens community and joining the healthcare and life sciences discussion forum.

Arthur Burkhardt, Data & Knowledge Management Lead, UCB Biopharma

October 2020

Arthur Burkhardt is Data & Knowledge Management Lead at UCB Biopharma. He is a technology strategy leader with a focus on data, and an active member of the Data Citizens community where you can find him answering questions and engaging in discussions. He’s also a member of the Collibra Innovators Program and contributes valuable feedback to the Collibra Product team.  

Arthur shared this advice for building a strong data team:

Always doubt and seek to understand. It’s not an easy topic, so if you think you have all the answers, think again. All team members have something to contribute. Structuring that conversation, inspiring teams and helping them develop a common vision is key to identifying the right solutions.” 

Ajith (AJ) Rao, Information Management Specialist, Intuitive
Matthew Donohoe, Collibra Architect, Intuitive

November 2020

In November, we highlighted not one, but two, amazing Data Citizens from Intuitive: Ajith (AJ) Rao, Information Management Specialist, and Matthew Donohoe, Collibra Architect. AJ and Matthew joined Collibra at Tableau Conferenceish ‘20 to present about how Intuitive uses Collibra to securely find and understand their Tableau analytics.

To learn more about their strategic approach, view the recording

Peter Vennel, Enterprise Information Architect at Equifax

December 2020

Peter Vennel is Enterprise Information Architect, a part of the Enterprise Data Office (EDO), at Equifax. This group serves as the liaison between business and technology, and provides advice and guidance on standards, best practices and procedures for the entire organization. In an interview we held with Peter, he discussed their data program and how data is more than just an asset at Equifax – it drives everything they do as a company. Here’s an excerpt from one of Peter’s responses:

“Our innovation is centered around data, whether we are building intelligent products or services that help our customers make smarter decisions. So having holistic awareness of all the data assets we have [in] Collibra helps speed up this process. With all the developments in the area of data privacy and compliance, it is equally important to have a single portal to support impact analysis and also audit needs.”

 Read the full interview to learn more about Equifax’s approach to letting data drive innovation.

Want to hear more from our data citizens?

Read the 2021 data predictions e-book!

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Want to hear more from our data citizens?

Read the 2021 data predictions e-book!

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