Maria Villar, Founder and Managing Partner, Business Data Leadership LLC
Maria C Villar brings over 25 years of experience as a Chief Data Officer responsible for building enterprise data management organizations from the ground up and spearheading the culture transformation across the enterprise. She has held senior executive roles in both the technology and financial sector. Notably, serving as SAP’s first CDO from 2009- 2017, later a CDO advisor to SAP customers from 2017-2024. Additionally, she pioneered IBM’s first enterprise data Center of Excellence (COE).
As a CDO, Maria was honored with the “Transformation of Collaboration From Inwards to Outwards” Award from the international Society of CDO (MIT/iSCDO) . This award recognizes outstanding CDO leadership in driving business outcomes and business collaboration.
In 2009, she co-founded Business Data Leadership, a firm dedicated to enhancing effective data management practices through training, writing, coaching and consulting on enterprise data strategy, data governance and business value realization . She also serves as an advisor to venture capital firms and start-ups. In 2022 and 2023 , CDO magazine recognized Maria as 1. Power women in data and 2. Top data consultants in North America
Maria publishes and speaks regularly:
- Co-authored a book with Theresa Kushner, “ Managing your Business Data from Chaos to Confidence”
- Developed 2 online classes https://ecm.elearningcurve.com/Maria_C_Villar_s/76.htm
- Has written numerous articles, including “Time to Level Up: The Evolving role of the Chief Data Officer” , 1. Data Voices Unite: Why One Enterprise Data Strategy Is The Answer. 2.What COVID-19 Dashboards Have Taught Us about Interpreting Data, 3.Managing Data in the Cloud – A Guide
- Published a data strategy master class available on YouTube
- MIT Sloan school article Presenting about data to your board: 6 tips from experts | MIT Sloan
Other affiliations:
- CDO IQ Planning Committee – member, advisor and 2024 conference co-chair ( CDOIQ Program)
- Women Leaders in Data & AI – member https://wlda.tech/ and program leader of the WLDA ventures accelerator program
