CDO Matters Podcast

How can today’s Chief Data Officers help their organizations become more data-driven? Join former Gartner analyst Malcolm Hawker as he interviews on thought leaders on data fabrics, blockchain and more — and learns why they matter to today’s CDOs. If you want to dig deep into the CDO Matters that are top-of-mind for today’s Chief Data Officers, this show is for you.

CDO Matters Podcast is a business podcast hosted by Profisee, with 108 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Profisee hosts CDO Matters Podcast, a business show with 108 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #1

  Data as a Product | CDO Matters BONUS

  Aug 7, 202639 min

  Most CDOs talk about data products. Very few approach them the way a product manager would starting with customer need, validating demand, and building only what people will actually use. In this episode: Why scalability without proven demand is a bridge to nowhere and how CDOs fall into that trap constantly What "outside-in" product management looks like in a data function and why it changes everything about how you prioritize How Jonathan Reeve's team at BetaNext links financial data assets to create insights clients didn't know they needed Why influence and storytelling aren't soft skills for data leaders they're the job The takeaway: "You hold the keys to the kingdom. If you're managing data better, you've got the power to influence innovation, product direction, and where investment goes." — Jonathan Reeve About the host and guest Malcolm Hawker is a former Gartner analyst, Chief Data Officer at Profisee, Editor-in-Chief of CDO Matters on Substack, and host of the CDO Matters Podcast. Jonathan Reeve is Chief Product Officer at BetaNext, a financial services data company. Watch + full transcript: profisee.com/podcast/data-as-a-product-summer-replay Subscribe to CDO Matters Monthly → https://profisee.com/cdo-matters-community/#join-community Follow Malcolm on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malhawker/ Guest → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-reeve-5a62271/

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  CDO Matters Podcast

  Why 90% of Your Data Isn't AI-Ready | CDO Matters BONUS

  Jul 13, 202634 min

  Most CDOs are still measuring AI readiness with a BI-readiness checklist and it's costing them. 80 to 90 percent of enterprise data is unstructured, sitting outside every governance program built over the last three decades. 📌 In this episode: The split Malcolm calls "the world of measurement vs. the world of meaning" and why Gen AI lives entirely in the latter Why only 25% of the data feeding AI models today is actually governed (per Dresner Research) Why a product manager and a value engineer might matter more right now than any new governance policy Why the 30-year-old model of data ownership breaks down in an AI-driven world and what it needs to become instead 💬 The takeaway: "You get budgets of millions of dollars to solve this problem but every day we disempower ourselves by saying 'garbage in, garbage out.'" About the host: Malcolm Hawker is a former Gartner analyst, Chief Data Officer at Profisee, Editor-in-Chief of CDO Matters on Substack, and host of the CDO Matters Podcast. This keynote was recorded live at the CDO Magazine CDO/CAO Summit. If you liked this episode: Check out "Beyond Data Catalogs: Building Context for AI and Data Products (Ep. 87)" Subscribe to CDO Matters Monthly → https://profisee.com/cdo-matters-community/#join-community Follow Malcolm on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malhawker/

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  Episode #104

  The AI Portfolio Dilemma: Why Most Companies Can't Account for What They're Spending | CDO Matters Ep 104

  Jun 26, 202649 min

  Most organizations are committing serious capital to AI and can't answer a basic question: how much are we actually spending, and on what? That accountability gap is about to close, whether data leaders are ready or not. 📌 In this episode: Why fewer than 5% of large companies can accurately track AI spend as a distinct category — and what happens when the CFO gets involved The Vane Loop framework: a quadrant-based approach to scoring data and AI investments on feasibility and impact across 70+ factors Why AI architecture decisions are now financial variables — and why most product managers aren't equipped to make them The strategic case for decommissioning: why building a library of reusable skills beats running 200 half-finished use cases 💬 The takeaway: "If you don't manage your costs, your costs will be managed for you." — Malcolm Hawker, Episode 104 About the host + guest: Malcolm Hawker is a former Gartner analyst, Chief Data Officer at Profisee, Editor-in-Chief of CDO Matters on Substack, and host of the CDO Matters Podcast. Karl Ivo Sokolov is Managing Director at Specific Group Austria and co-author of Finance, Grade Data and AI Products. He sits on the US Institute of Management Accountants board and is the creator of the Vane Loop framework for AI portfolio steering.

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  Episode #103

  The Metadata Problem Nobody Talks About: Context, Catalogs, and the CDO's Next Land Grab | CDO Matters Ep. 103

  Jun 12, 202652 min

  Every organization is told they need context for AI to work. Almost none of them know where to start. The answer has been sitting in their metadata all along — but most CDOs haven't connected those dots yet. 📌 In this episode: Why your data catalog is already a source of context — and how to expose it to agentic workflows today The semantic layer problem: definitions living in BI tools instead of governed catalogs, and why that creates risk Why engineers and library scientists think about language completely differently — and why that gap matters for AI Malcolm's argument that CDOs are in a unique position to make a "land grab" on unstructured data before someone else does 💬 The takeaway: "CDOs are in a unique position to make a land grab: the ontologists, the taxonomists, the library scientists are all over the organization without one single leader. That's your moment." — Malcolm Hawker About the host + guest: Malcolm Hawker is a former Gartner analyst, Chief Data Officer at Profisee, Editor-in-Chief of CDO Matters, and host of the CDO Matters Podcast. Ole Olesen-Bagneux is Chief Evangelist at Actian and O'Reilly author of Fundamentals of Metadata Management (2025) and The Enterprise Data Catalog (2023) — the practitioner's reference for anyone building or governing a data catalog. Subscribe to CDO Matters Monthly → https://profisee.com/cdo-matters-community/#join-community Follow Malcolm on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malhawker/ Guest Ole Olesen-Bagneux → https://www.linkedin.com/in/ole-olesen-bagneux/

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  Episode #102

  The Data Sprawl Dilemma: Centralize, Replicate, or Virtualize? | CDO Matters Ep. 102

  May 29, 202640 minS0

  <p>Most organizations default to replicating data: copying it from source systems into warehouses and lakes so their tools can reach it. Anu Jain, founder and CEO of Nexus One, thinks that's the wrong answer. Malcolm isn't so sure and that's where it gets interesting.</p><p>📌 In this episode:</p><p>Why the official count of data sources is always an undercount: shadow data, unstructured data, and legacy systems mean the real number is far higher than anyone reports</p><p>The case for virtualization over replication: bring the compute to the data, leave it where it lives, and col...

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