CDO Magazine’s inaugural Chicago Leadership Summit, held September 10 at the Crowne Plaza Chicago West Loop, ignited dynamic, future-focused conversations in the region’s data, analytics, and AI community.

With more than 200 participants and 40+ distinguished speakers, the summit delivered a rich agenda of keynote presentations, panel breakout sessions, and focus groups. Executives from financial services and insurance, healthcare and life sciences, consumer goods and retail, manufacturing and logistics, education and government actively engaged — sharing insights, posing thoughtful questions, and exchanging ideas — making the Summit a truly collaborative and high-impact gathering.

The four keynote sessions stood out:

• McDonald’s Data Leaders Show How Collaboration Drives Growth: Michelle Gansle, McDonald’s Corporation Chief Data, Analytics & AI Officer, and Wei Manfredi, McDonald’s Corporation VP, Global Architecture, Data Analytics & AI
• Breaking the Mold: Bold Leadership Lessons from the Frontlines of Data & AI: Chandra Donelson, CDAIO, Author, Board Member, and Maribeth Achterberg, The Boldt Group Chief Information & Technology Officer & EVP
• Beyond the Algorithm: Leading the Human Side of AI Transformation: Sol Rashidi Cyera Chief Strategy Officer for Data & AI
• Stop Being Data Driven – From the Lens of a CEO: Len Finkle, Profisee CEO

CDO Magazine thanks the host city Co-Chairs of the Chicago Leadership Summit for their leadership:

• Maribeth Achterberg, The Boldt Group Chief Information & Technology Officer & EVP
• Patrick Chew, AIT Worldwide Logistics VP, AI & Data Science
• Meera Dugar, JPMorganChase SVP & Tech Partner
• Sabrykrishnan Loganathan, Peloton AI & App Security Advisor
• John Tucker, McDonald’s Corporation Director, Enterprise Data Governance
• Xuhui Quan, Analog Devices Vice President, Customer Experience & Digital Innovation

The Summit also celebrated the Top 25 Chicago Data Leaders for 2025, honoring executives who are setting new benchmarks in governance, innovation, and AI-powered transformation. These leaders are shaping the future of industries ranging from financial services, insurance and healthcare to consumer brands, energy, and logistics.

Reflecting on her experience, Co-chair and keynote moderator Achterberg says, “The information exchanges during the summit, whether in the breakout or boardroom sessions, were excellent. The keynote speakers offered timely takeaways. Whether it was, ‘Keep your bad data to train your AI models,’ or consider your AI agents as interns that need to be trained, to the impactful conversation regarding the reasons why our early AI agents are failing. It was a good investment with data colleagues who shared their expertise.”

Highlighting from her fireside chat, keynote speaker Donelson says, “We have to change the conversation around AI and ROI. ROI has historically been about financial P&L. But with AI, most of the gains aren’t in dollars — they’re in time, our most valuable asset. Capacity to do more — and to deliver faster than competitors — in the same eight hours. That’s the return leaders need to start measuring.”

Shawn Tumanov, GEICO Data, Model & AI Executive, says: “The dialogue on measuring ROI was valuable—hearing perspectives on ROI as not just about money, but also about speed and operational efficiencies. The keynote speakers did a fantastic job addressing the common challenges we all face, and I left feeling encouraged by their message that our profession is both needed and respected now more than ever.” 

Tumanov also found the summit to be very insightful. “There was a lot of thoughtful discussion on the progress organizations are making with Data and AI Governance, and I especially appreciated the shift in conversation from simply ‘governance’ to true business value enablement,” he adds.

Praising CDO Magazine for an excellent summit, Co-chair Chew says, “Every time I attend their event, I walk away with awe and appreciation of how caring this community is, true unselfish sharing of data, information, know-how, challenges, and new ways of solutioning all of data and AI initiatives (being pretty much our focus for most attendees today) that we can apply and harvest the benefits. Thank you to the CDO Magazine team for bringing us together once again, and looking forward to the next enriching Summit and events!”

Co-chair Quan agrees, saying “it was an honor” to join fellow data leaders at the Chicago Leadership Summit. “The panel discussions underscored how AI is reshaping customer experience, and I was inspired by the shared commitment to responsible innovation. Reconnecting with so many peers and engaging in forward-looking dialogue reminded me why this community is so vital to our industry’s evolutions,” she adds.

Keynote speaker Finkle notes how so many engaged data leaders at the summit made for an “extraordinary” learning experience. He says, “While AI challenges are everywhere, understanding how they are being tackled was extremely invigorating. Hearing about their experiences, successes and failures firsthand helps me and Profisee better serve the market and all of our customers.”

Similarly, what stood out most for Co-chair Tucker at this year’s summit was how governance, AI, and culture are coming together. He says, “The message was clear: trust in AI is earned, not given. As data leaders, we sit at the crossroads of business, technology, and people. Our role is not only to protect data but also to unlock its potential responsibly, creating an environment where employees can become innovators, not just users of AI.”

Vignesh Shetty, Medtronic VP, AI & Software Engineering, says, “The real power of Gen-AI isn’t in how much it can create — it’s in how well humans can curate. At today’s summit, surrounded by brilliant minds, one thing became clear: the future belongs to those who subtract intelligence and add using judgment.”

Sharing her experience of attending her first CDO Magazine Summit, Mingju Sun, American Family Insurance VP, Data & AI, says that she was “impressed by the vibrant sense of community” among data and analytics leaders. “It was inspiring to connect with so many professionals who share a deep passion and commitment to advancing data and AI. The summit featured a diverse range of topics, sparking engaging discussions throughout the event. Serving on the ‘Designing the Foundation for an AI-Ready Culture’ panel was dynamic and fun. Overall, it was an excellent opportunity to build meaningful connections and drive innovation together,” Sun adds.

Suma Nair, JPMorganChase Executive Director and Head, Data for Connected Commerce, Payments & Digital Wallets describes the Summit as an “inspiring gathering of data leaders and industry powerhouses, united by a spirit of partnership and collaboration.” What truly stood out for Nair was the “genuine willingness of participants to connect, share insights, and support one another—regardless of how recently they’d met.”

A key takeaway for Nair was the recognition of the often underappreciated work being done in the data and analytics space. “While the business world is slow to acknowledge the critical role of data leaders — especially in areas like data governance — the rise of GenAI and agentic AI is amplifying the importance of data as petabytes fuel the next wave of innovation and ROI. A heartfelt thank you to the CDO Magazine organizers, leaders, participants, and sponsors for creating one of the most memorable and impactful data-focused events I’ve attended,” she adds.

Ivana Donevska, BMO Head, US Data, Analytics & AI Risk, appreciated that the Summit brought together Chicago data leaders from the forefront of a variety of industries in the area. “Beyond the exchange of experiences, the connections with these fellow leaders is what I’ll be looking to continue to foster at future CDO Magazine events!” she says.

Corey Maxner, CDO Magazine Executive Director, sums up the event saying, “Our Chicago Leadership Summit marked the beginning of something truly special. What was once a long-awaited idea came to life as a day full of bold conversations on data, analytics, AI, and security — conversations that will shape the future of our industry. I am profoundly grateful to our co-chairs, speakers, sponsors, and attendees for turning this vision into reality. Together, we have planted the seeds of a thriving community in Chicago, and I’m energized to see it grow, innovate, and have CDO Magazine lead the way as we move toward our next events.”

Special thanks to Cyera, Profisee, Burtch Works, ThoughtSpot, Tiger Analytics, TigerGraph, Immuta, Informatica, Kognitos, Syncari, i.c.stars Chicago, Lumi AI, Qualiware, The Data Lodge, and Data Society for making this event a success.

*Maribeth Achterberg, Patrick Chew, Chandra Donelson, Xuhui Quan, John Tucker, and Vignesh Shetty, are members of the CDO Magazine Global Editorial Board.

Executives speaking at the CDO Magazine Chicago Leadership Summit included:

Haroon Abbu, Bell & Howell SVP, Digital Technology & Data Analytics; Maribeth Achterberg, The Boldt Group Chief Information & Technology Officer & EVP; Dominic Bardele, CIBC Director, Automation & Applied AI; Patrick Chew, AIT Worldwide Logistics VP, AI & Data Science; Dan Cromer, Walker & Dunlop SVP, Product, Data; Chandra Donelson, CDAIO, Author, Board Member; Ivana Donevska, BMO Head, US Data, Analytics & AI Risk; Abigail Doolittle, PhD, former M&T Bank EVP, Head, Enterprise Analytics & Customer Data; Meera Dugar, JPMorganChase SVP & Tech Partner; Anusha Dwivedula, Morningstar Director, Product Management, Analytics; Michelle Gansle, McDonald’s Corporation Chief Data, Analytics & AI Officer; Grant Ecker, Ecolab VP, Enterprise Architecture; Preeti Gupta, IAHV Sr. Director, Data & Platform Engineering; Dylani Herath, Thrivent Director, Engineering (Data Platform, AI & ML); Matt Hull, Chamberlain Group SVP, CDAO;Sabrykrishnan Loganathan, Peloton AI & App Security Advisor; Wei Manfredi, McDonald’s Corporation VP, Global Architecture, Data Analytics & AI; Gokula Mishra, former Direct Supply VP, Data Science & AI/ML; Philip Nunoo, DirecTV Director, Marketing Analytics; John Tucker, McDonald’s Corporation Director, Enterprise Data Governance; Xuhui Quan, Analog Devices VP, Customer Experience & Digital Innovation, Aslam A. Rahim, Gallagher BISO & Global Head, Application Security; Brad Rosenberg, Inland Investments Director, Data Management; Kader Sakkaria, Gallagher Global Head, Data CoE; Joel Shapiro, JD, PhD, Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management Clinical Associate Professor, Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences; Vignesh Shetty, Medtronic VP, AI & Software Engineering; Dr. Ramendra Singh, Horizon Commerce CDAO; Mingju Sun, American Family Insurance VP, Data & AI;  Shawn Tumanov, GEICO Data, Model & AI Executive; Anthony Wong, Lurie Children’s Hospital Research Scientist; Michael Butts, Burtch Works CEO; Dre Feeney, The Data Lodge Client Solutions Director; Len Finkle, Profisee CEO; Kelley Jarrett, ThoughtSpot SVP, Strategy, Operations & Enablement; Brian Kleinfelt, The Data Lodge Client Delivery & Programs Director; Dylan Kuntz, Immuta Sr. Solutions Architect; Victor Lee, TigerGraph Head, Product Marketing & Distinguished Graph Specialist; Paige Leidig, TigerGraph Chief Marketing Officer; Amy McNee, Informatica SVP, Global Solution Architecture; Neeraj Mathur, Kognitos VP, Solutions Engineering; Sol Rashidi, Cyera Chief Strategy Officer for Data & AI; Rajeev Shrivastava, TigerGraph CEO; Kamlesh Singh, Tiger Analytics Regional Sales Head; Jack Smith, Syncari Principal SE; Anthony Losanno, CDO Magazine SVP, Sales; Corey Maxner, CDO Magazine Chicago Leadership Summit Executive Director; Camille Prado, CDO Magazine Global Editor; Lexy Smith, CDO Magazine Program Director.