MARIA C. VILLAR
DATA & DATA ANALYTICS
MARIA C. VILLAR
TITLE: MANAGING PARTNER
COMPANY: BUSINESS DATA LEADERSHIP
INDUSTRY: SOFTWARE LOCATION: CALIFORNIA, USA
Maria is a respected technology executive and data leader with more than 25 years of experience. She was Global VP of Data Management and Governance at SAP until 2024 and is known for building award-winning global data governance and management programmes that drive business impact and digital transformation.
Satya’ s vision is one that epitomises how data governance is no longer just about controlling access or compliance – it’ s about stewarding an unprecedented volume of data to maximise value while safeguarding privacy and security.
The data governance cultural shift Achieving the high level of trust needed requires a profound cultural shift and a collective agreement to treat information as a primary corporate asset.
Maria C. Villar, Managing Partner at Business Data Leadership, who served as Global Vice President of Data and Analytics at SAP until last year, says this requires deep commitment.
“ Good data governance is not a project, it’ s a programme,” she says in The Chief Data Officer’ s Playbook by Caroline Carruthers and Peter Jackson.“ It requires a change in culture and mindset, where data is treated as a strategic asset across the entire organisation. When you manage data as an asset, the value you can derive from it multiplies.”
Speaking about her own book, Managing your Business Data: From Chaos to Confidence, and the importance of data governance, she reiterates:“ Good data governance is like water. It’ s the pipe. It’ s the electricity that runs every part of the company. So the more confidence you have in the underlined foundational data that you have, the faster you can make decisions and the faster you can really go after your customers with more information about them.
“ But governance is really more than just technology. I think that’ s an important point.”
Both she and Satya acknowledge the importance of humans in this
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