Hi All,
It was wonderful seeing you all at Truision’s East Coast CIO Forum. That we could finally meet in person, for the first time since COVID, was a real treat.
We had the privilege of hearing from the amazing panel of executives:
- Robin Gordon-Chief Data and Analytics Officer at MetLife
- Michael Herskovitz-Managing Director at Prudential Financial
- David Hirschfeld-Chief Data Officer at Marsh
- Julia Bardmesser-SVP/Head of Data Architecture and Salesforce Development at Voya Financial
- moderated by Stephen Brobst-Truision Partner, and Managing Partner at Sampo Technologies & Systems
The topic for the evening was:
- 2022-Data grows up, becomes a first-class citizen, and reshapes global business
Thanks to our panelists and all of you for traveling near and far to join us. Hopefully, this is the first of many future reasons for us to gather.
Robin Gordon’s Bio
Robin Gordon is MetLife’s Chief Data and Analytics Officer. In this role, she manages MetLife’s enterprise data priorities across governance, data management, business intelligence, analytics, and strategy. Gordon has vast experience understanding digital transformation and building dynamic teams, as well as connecting human and digital experiences to reimagine business and operating models all while driving digital and data innovation. She joined MetLife in March 2021 from Blackstone where she was the Chief Information Officer leading the technology and data organization for multiple companies within their real estate portfolio. There, Gordon helped accelerate the customer-centric innovation journey resulting in better property management, deal decisioning, and portfolio optimization. She also helped build a metrics-driven organization and migrated the company’s infrastructure to the cloud. Previously, Gordon was the Chief Data Officer for CoreLogic where she engineered a digital transformation working across all business units to overhaul customer journeys, build advanced analytics use cases, and deploy a modernized data architecture. She managed implementation of an integrated cloud-based data and analytics platform for new product development that resulted in increased organic growth. She has also led teams responsible for data technology and customer analytics at Dun and Bradstreet and several insurance companies. Gordon has been an advocate for diversity and women in technology throughout her career. She holds a bachelor of eCommerce, economics, and Information Systems (Distinction in Business Management) degree from the University of South Africa and Master of Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business.
Michael Herskovitz’s Bio
Michael Herskovitz is a Managing Director at Prudential and manages the core technology supporting Financial Management, Corporate Functions, and PGIM Shared Services. Michael joined Prudential in 2020 and previously worked for AllianceBernstein (AB) as the Partner & Senior Vice President overseeing operations and technology infrastructure related to fixed-income, derivatives, and alternative investment functions. He joined AB in 2006 from UBS, where he was the managing director for Risk and Finance Technology. Herskovitz has held senior technology management and quantitative research positions with Morgan Stanley, including the London-based role of international CIO, at Merrill Lynch and Zurich Scudder Investments. He started his financial-services career working on Merrill Lynch’s corporate bond trading desk as a hedging/arbitrage analyst before becoming a mortgage-backed securities research analyst. Since 1985, Herskovitz has gained extensive analytical and technical experience in financial services, including fixed income, commodities, derivative products, and risk management. He has co-authored two books and many research papers on mortgage-backed securities pricing and analytics. Herskovitz served on the Board of Directors for the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation and has served in several leadership roles for SIFMA’s Asset Management Operations Executive Committee. He holds a BS in operations research and an MS in industrial administration from Carnegie Mellon University. Location: New York.
David Hirschfeld’s Bio
David is the Chief Data Officer for Marsh. In this role, he is focused on defining and implementing a Data Governance program alongside building and enhancing a suite of Reference and Transaction Data Masters. Prior to his role at Marsh, David was charged with building a Data and Analytics platform for the real estate holdings of Blackstone. A University of Chicago trained economist, David has spent most of his career in Capital Markets, moving repeatedly between the sell and buy side. It was during his early experience as a trader and quant that David discovered, first-hand, the criticality of data to generate revenue and transform organizations. Since then, his career has spanned a wide range of roles, from operations to technology to business management.
Julia Bardmesser’s Bio
Julia Bardmesser is the Senior Vice President, Head of Data, Architecture, and Salesforce Development at Voya. In her role, Julia is leading the transformation of Voya’s enterprise assets in Data, Architecture, and Salesforce to increase agility and speed to market by eliminating redundant data silos and consolidating and automating data processes to deliver key insights from proprietary data; and reducing costs through re-use and infrastructure simplification. Prior to joining Voya Julia was a Global Head of Data Integration at Deutsche Bank, where she led the implementation of a global metadata management platform that enabled data lineage and robust front-to-back data quality measurement. Julia has over twenty years of experience in data management, data governance, architecture, and cross-platform solution delivery in the financial industry. She also worked at Citi, FINRA, Freddie Mac, Thomson Financial Services, Bear Stearns and Bloomberg L.P. Julia has a Master of Arts degree in Economics from New York University.
Stephen Brobst’s Bio
Stephen Brobst is a managing partner at Sampo Technologies & Systems. His expertise is in the identification and development of opportunities for the strategic use of data and technology in competitive business environments. Over the past thirty years, Stephen has been involved in numerous engagements in which he has been called upon to apply his combined expertise in business strategy and machine learning with high-end data to develop frameworks to leverage information for strategic advantage. Stephen performed his graduate work in Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his Masters and Ph.D. research focused on high-performance parallel processing. He also completed an MBA with joint course and thesis work at the Harvard Business School and the MIT Sloan School of Management. Stephen is a TDWI Fellow and has been on the faculty of The Data Warehousing Institute since 1996. During Barack Obama’s first term he was also appointed to the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) in the working group on Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) where he worked on the development of the Big Data strategy for the US government. In 2014 he was ranked by ExecRank as the #4 CTO in the United States (behind the CTOs from Amazon.com, Tesla Motors, and Intel) out of a pool of 10,000+ CTOs.
