2025 Great Lakes Data, AI & Analytics Summit

MIT’s recent report The State of AI in Business showed a 95% failure rate. Interestingly, the root cause of these failures was precisely the same as the root cause of failure for most traditional BI projects: poverty of Context. In this keynote, Scott will make the case that mastering Context is the shared key to improving BI value-delivery in the short term and to laying the groundwork for successful analytical AI projects that will follow.

Presented by: Scott Davis

Scott is a tireless bender of categories, remixing ideas from a sprawling array of experiences: corporate CFO, certified diesel mechanic, tech entrepreneur, industrial engineer, ocean vagabond, educator, quant, UX designer, author, philanthropist. For more than 30 years he’s led ground-breaking work in decision science and business intelligence for some of the largest airlines, telecoms, railroads, and financial services firms in the world.

In today’s data-driven world, the role of data stewards is crucial for maintaining data quality and governance. This presentation will explore how to facilitate a successful data stewardship program by innovating with existing tools and resources. Attendees will learn strategies for providing structure and support to data stewards, ensuring they can effectively manage and govern data assets. Key insights will be shared on how to creatively use available tools to solve data governance challenges and drive positive outcomes for the organization, even when working with a small team. Benefits of the Talk:

• Structured Data Stewardship: Discover methods to establish a clear framework and support system for data stewards.

• Innovative Problem-Solving: Gain insights on how to leverage existing tools and technologies creatively.

• Creating Data Governance Standards: Learn techniques to involve various departments in your organization to create effective data governance standards, especially when working with a small team.

• Program Facilitation: Understand best practices for facilitating and managing a data stewardship program.

Presented by Frances Stoor, Jackson Financial

Frances Stoor is a seasoned data governance professional with a rich background in software development. Over her impressive 20-year tenure at Jackson Financial, Frances has gained extensive experience in supporting both legacy systems and cloud-based data architecture and management. Currently, Frances serves as the Manager of Data & AI Governance at Jackson, where she plays a pivotal role in setting and executing the organization's data governance roadmap. Her expertise extends to implementing AI governance compliance across the enterprise, ensuring that Jackson maintains the highest standards of data integrity and ethical AI practices. Frances's leadership and innovative approach have been instrumental in bridging the gap between business leaders and IT development teams, fostering a culture of collaboration and excellence in data management.

Without healthy data, every decision is at risk. High-quality data allows you to reach more customers, unlock new partnerships, implement new business models, become more agile, and move faster than competitors. However, most organizations focus their data-quality efforts on cleaning up errors, rather than finding and fixing the root cause of the errors in the first place. As a result, organizations lack an enterprise data quality foundation to respond to regulatory, analytics and AI demands in a scalable way.

Please join Bobbi Caggianelli, Global Practitioner, Customer Engineering, Collibra, in a practical discussion of how data quality and observability can help you shape your data and AI strategy. She’ll discuss:

- Top trends in data quality and observability

- Ownership of review and remediation

- Steps to drive data quality adoption and ensure success

Presented by: Bobbi Caggianelli, Collibra

Prior to joining Collibra, Bobbi Caggianelli spent four years building a data governance and quality practice from scratch at a multi-billion dollar life and annuity company. She joined Colliba after working with Collibra's toolset, in part to share her experience with others. Her goal is to help companies build a successful governance practice and show them how Collibra enables that maturation journey. Bobbi has an MS in Business Analytics and is a Master Black Belt in Six Sigma.

AI and machine learning efforts need access to centralized, high-quality data. However, managing data pipelines in-house often leads to complexity, inefficiencies, and delays that stall AI innovation. This session explores how automation transforms data movement—streamlining ingestion, normalization, and preparation—to fuel AI/ML applications effectively. Discover how automated pipelines, managed data lake services, and rapid deployment models empower teams to move from experimentation to production faster, unlocking real business value.

Join this session to learn:
- Strategies to centralize and normalize data from diverse sources

- How to get reliable, high-quality data from automated pipelines

- Ways to accelerate AI from experimentation to production with scalable data movement

Presented by: James Render, Fivetran

James Render is a Senior Sales Engineer at Fivetran.  He has been in the data space for over 12 years, working in analytics, data management, and data integration. He has worked with enterprise organizations on data infrastructure and integration for 10 years. During his time at Fivetran, James has partnered to onboard various Fortune 100, 500 and G2K organizations, modernizing their data movement infrastructure for advanced analytics and generative AI initiatives.

Master Data Management (MDM) is no longer just a data governance initiative. it has become a strategic engine for driving business value. As organizations modernize, traditional MDM approaches must evolve to support cloud-native platforms, AI-driven insights, and real-time data needs. This session explores how modern MDM can fuel digital transformation by unifying data, enabling smarter analytics, and delivering measurable ROI. Attendees will gain insights into modernization strategies that align technology with business priorities, innovations that leverage automation and AI for better outcomes, and best practices that ensure governance, scalability, and agility. Real-world examples will highlight how enterprises are turning MDM into a catalyst for operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, and customer experience excellence.  

Presented by: Vinod Surasani, Royal Bank of Canada

Vinod Surasani is a Sr Software Engineer with 14 years of experience designing and implementing enterprise applications and data-driven solutions. His expertise spans data analytics, AI/ML integration, cloud-native development, and modernization of data management platforms, with a strong focus on scalability, performance, and governance. Vinod has contributed to impactful programs in finance, healthcare, and technology-driven industries, helping organizations unlock business value through advanced analytics and automation. He has worked extensively with Master Data Management (MDM), event-driven systems, and modern data platforms that support intelligent decision-making. Passionate about innovation and knowledge sharing, Vinod actively participates in industry conferences, Industry advisory, and mentoring initiatives, contributing to the broader data and AI community.

Unlocking the full potential of your enterprise means connecting everything—from legacy systems to AI. This session explores how a modern Multi-Capability Platform (MCP) goes beyond traditional integration to simplify complexity, boost business agility, and drive tangible value. Discover how a unified platform for application and data integration can accelerate your digital transformation and future-proof your business. Join us to learn how to build a flexible integration strategy that truly delivers.

Presented by: Roger Sramkoski, SnapLogic

Roger Sramkoski is a distinguished professional celebrated for his unique ability to bridge the strategic worlds of sales engineering and product marketing. With a profound command of complex technologies, he excels at translating sophisticated technical capabilities into compelling narratives that resonate with key stakeholders. As a visionary behind SnapLogic's iPaaS "golden demo" and a pivotal contributor to Gartner MQ submissions, Roger's deep technical expertise and strategic acumen have been instrumental in shaping the company’s market position and influencing its external story.