Silos to Synergy: C-Suite Alignment That Will Define Enterprise Winners in 2026
At CDO Magazine's Nov 5 summit, leaders reveal how to link business, data, and tech for outcomes that stick. Expect clear playbooks for risk, governance, and execution.
Silos to Synergy: The High-Stakes Panel That Will Set the Competitive Tone for 2026
AI News Bureau
Updated 2:20 AM GMT+8, Wed October 1, 2025
Alignment is the new advantage. Business, technology, and data cannot sit in separate plans anymore. When they do, you lose speed, waste budget, and stall outcomes.
That's why one session at the CDO Magazine Columbus Leadership Summit on November 5, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency - Columbus Downtown deserves your full attention: "From Silos to Synergy: Aligning Data, Tech & Strategy for Real Impact." This panel puts senior operators on stage to show how they unify priorities across the C-suite, manage risk without slowing delivery, and build organizations that execute.
Why this conversation matters
AI adoption, modernization, and resilience are moving faster than your operating model. The biggest blocker isn't tools - it's misalignment across CDO, CTO, CISO, COO, and business leaders.
This session will cover how leaders use governance, risk strategies, and culture to make alignment real. Expect practical examples of storytelling that gets buy-in, not just sign-off - and tactics you can use immediately to strengthen cross-functional execution.
Leaders guiding the dialogue
- Tom Marlow, Liberty Mutual VP, Global Data & Analytics
- Justin Windle, First Citizens Bank Head of Data Oversight
- Jenni Wheeler, Cardinal Health VP, Data Office
- Corwin Smith, Wallick Communities Director, Business Intelligence & Analytics
They operate in sectors where misalignment costs more than money. It affects customer trust, regulatory readiness, and the pace of innovation.
What executives will take back to the office
- Alignment blueprint: Link three threads - business outcomes → data products → platform roadmaps. Run monthly C-suite OKR syncs and maintain one value-ranked backlog.
- Governance that accelerates: Product-centric data ownership, decision-rights matrices, and risk scoring that routes decisions to the right level. Reference frameworks like the NIST AI Risk Management Framework to standardize language and accountability.
- Risk and security in the flow: Joint risk reviews for AI/ML, model oversight integrated with change management, and clear handoffs between data, security, and audit.
- Culture that sticks: Narrative memos, executive roadshows, and functional champions who translate strategy into local action. Measure belief, not just adoption.
- Metrics that matter: Time-to-value, data-product adoption, number of ML uses in production, cost-to-serve per use case, trust indicators (complaints, outages), and control testing cycle time.
- Operating cadence: Quarterly planning, two-week increments, and a monthly "single-truth" review to kill duplicative work and unblock dependencies.
Questions worth asking in the room
- What are the top three enterprise outcomes for 2026, and which data products directly support them?
- Where do decision rights break down between business, data, tech, and security - and how are they clarified?
- Which processes are we stopping to fund what matters? How do we track the savings?
- What one metric changed alignment most in the last year?
- How do you prove trust - to customers, regulators, and your board - without slowing delivery?
A summit with purpose
This isn't a typical conference. It's a working forum built for candid dialogue and peer learning. Leaders from organizations such as Wells Fargo, Nationwide, Humana, Liberty Mutual, Marathon Petroleum Corporation, Cardinal Health, Huntington Bank, and JPMorganChase will be in the room.
"Summits like this are where the most important conversations in data leadership happen," says Lisa Runkle, Global Event Manager at CDO Magazine. "From Silos to Synergy isn't just another panel - it's a forum for leaders to think differently about alignment and leave with ideas that can drive real organizational impact."
Make it count: prep checklist for your team
- Write three value hypotheses for 2026 that AI and data can prove or disprove in 90 days.
- Map system-of-record → data products → use cases for your top two customer outcomes.
- List your top 10 risks across model, data, privacy, and operational continuity with owners and thresholds.
- Identify two processes to retire to fund higher-impact work.
- Bring your operating cadence and ask how peers run theirs.
Why you should be in the room
The future belongs to enterprises that turn data into strategy and strategy into execution - seamlessly. If you lead AI adoption, digital modernization, or enterprise change, this conversation will be hard to ignore.
Register now to secure your place at the CDO Magazine Columbus Leadership Summit and get insights you can put to work in your next planning cycle.
