
Secrets of Data Analytics Leaders
Listen to data and analytics leaders share the secrets of their success. Wayne Eckerson, long-time global thought leader interviews guests who run data and analytics programs at Fortune 2000 organizations around the world. Tune in to stay abreast of the latest technologies, techniques, and trends in our fast-paced industry.
Latest episodes

Mar 6, 2018 • 34min
Jeff Magnusson: How To Create A Self-Service Data Platform For Data Scientists
Explore the self-service data platform model discussed by Jeff Magnusson, VP of Data Platform at Stitch Fix. Learn about the integration of data engineering and data science roles, empowering data scientists with Flotilla API for batch job execution, and the technology stack deployed on AWS including Spark and Presto.

Feb 19, 2018 • 33min
Mike Masciandaro: Part III - Eight Keys For Successful Reporting
In this episode, Wayne Eckerson and Mike Masciandaro discuss keys to creating successful reports that users will love and use. Masciandaro provides in-depth explanations of each key (easy, drill, monitor, accurate, relevant, timely, responsive, and secure).
Masciandaro is a veteran business intelligence practitioner who recently retired from an illustrious career at Dow Chemical as director of BI. During that time, Mike saw and did just about everything there is to do in the world of BI, data, and analytics. He is now intent on sharing his hard-won knowledge with others.

Feb 4, 2018 • 36min
Lenin Gali: Past and Future of the Cloud and Big Data
In this episode, Wayne Eckerson and Lenin Gali discuss the past and future of the cloud and big data.
Gali is a data analytics practitioner who has always been on the leading edge of where business and technology intersect. He was one of the first to move data analytics to the cloud when he was BI director at ShareThis, a social media based services provider. He was instrumental in defining an enterprise analytics strategy, developing a data platform that brought games and business data together to enable thousands of data users to build better games and services by using Hadoop & Teradata while at Ubisoft. He is now spearheading the creation of a Hadoop-based data analytics platform at Quotient, a digital marketing technology firm in the retail industry.

Jan 25, 2018 • 40min
Stephen Smith: Operationalizing Data Science
In this podcast, Henry Eckerson and Stephen Smith discuss the movement to operationalize data science.
Smith is a well-respected expert in the fields of data science, predictive analytics and their application in the education, pharmaceutical, healthcare, telecom and finance industries. He co-founded and served as CEO of G7 Research LLC and the Optas Corporation which provided the leading CRM / Marketing Automation solution in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.
Smith has published journal articles in the fields of data mining, machine learning, parallel supercomputing, text understanding, and simulated evolution. He has published two books through McGraw-Hill on big data and analytics and holds several patents in the fields of educational technology, big data analytics, and machine learning. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from MIT and an MS in Applied Sciences from Harvard University. He is currently the research director of data science at Eckerson Group.

Jan 22, 2018 • 41min
Mike Masciandaro: Part II - BI Customer Satisfaction and Adoption
In this episode, Mike Masciandaro and Wayne Eckerson discuss how to partner with the business and ensure high levels of customer satisfaction and adoption.
Mike is a veteran business intelligence practitioner who recently retired from an illustrious career at Dow Chemical. Mike has seen and done just about everything there is to do in the world of BI, data, and analytics. He is now intent on sharing his hard-won knowledge with others.

Jan 16, 2018 • 48min
Joe Caserta: Exploring Modern Data Platforms
In this podcast, Wayne Eckerson and Joe Caserta discuss what constitutes a modern data platform. Caserta is President of a New York City-based consulting firm he founded in 2001 and a longtime data guy. In 2004, Joe teamed up with data warehousing legend, Ralph Kimball to write to write the book The Data Warehouse ETL Toolkit. Today he’s now one of the leading authorities on big data implementations. This makes Joe one of the few individuals with in-the-trenches experience on both sides of the data divide, traditional data warehousing on relational databases and big data implementations on Hadoop and the cloud. His perspectives are always insightful.

Jan 9, 2018 • 29min
Dewayne Washington: Part II - Keys to IT Success
Dewayne Washington is back this week for part II of his Secrets of Data Analytics Leaders podcast with Eckerson Group. In part I, Dewayne and I discussed the role of the CIO. In this episode we discuss the keys to IT success.
Washington is a senior consultant with 20+ years of experience in BI and Analytics in over two dozen verticals. He is the former BI manager at Dallas/Fortworth International Airport and the current CIO at The Business of Intelligence. He is also the author of the book Get In The Stream, the ultimate guide to customer adoption, and his Data Warehousing and Mobile Solutions implementations have been featured in CIO Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. Washington is also a sought-after speaker and mentor for organizations striving to leverage BI and Analytics to meet business goals, thus earning him the title, BI Pharaoh.

Jan 8, 2018 • 44min
Dewayne Washington: Part I - The Role Of The CIO
In this podcast, Dewayne Washington speaks the unadulterated truth about the role of the CIO and discusses keys to success and common pitfalls. Washington is a senior consultant with 20+ years of experience in BI and Analytics in over two dozen verticals. He is the former BI manager at Dallas/Fortworth International Airport and the current CIO at The Business of Intelligence. Washington is also a sought-after speaker and mentor for organizations striving to leverage BI and Analytics to meet business goals, thus earning him the title, BI Pharaoh.

Jan 4, 2018 • 34min
Mike Masciandaro: Part I - BI Programs and Teams
Mike Masciandaro is a veteran business intelligence practitioner who recently retired from an illustrious career at Dow Chemical. Mike has seen and done just about everything there is to do in the world of BI, data, and analytics. He is now intent on sharing his hard-won knowledge with others. You will learn the definition and purpose of a BI program, the role of subject matter experts, how to hire and retain talent, keys to delivering value as a BI program, and more.

Jan 16, 2017 • 30min
Kevin Sonsky: BI Leadership and Data Governance
Kevin Sonsky, business intelligence leader at Citrix Systems, shares the secrets to his success, including implementing self-service reporting and establishing a grassroots governance program at Citrix. They discuss the challenges of data chaos, the importance of standardized metrics and reports, certifying reports with watermarks, and maintaining reports in a business using Tableau as a standardized tool.