About

Data leaders are often brilliant at explaining platforms, governance, architecture, and AI. Yet many data initiatives still struggle to secure investment, executive sponsorship, or long-term support.

Why?
Because Boards, CFOs, and executive teams don’t invest in data, they invest in outcomes.

Drawing on lessons from leading a major Finance analytics and data transformation, Hanna Earls shares how a data initiative initially positioned around data lakes, system integration, and self-service analytics was transformed from a high-risk technical proposal into a strategic business priority by changing one thing: the conversation.

This session offers a rare Finance perspective on data strategy, revealing how investment decisions are really made and why successful data leaders frame initiatives around value, decisions, growth, and opportunity rather than technology.
Attendees will leave with practical techniques for translating data ambitions into business outcomes that resonate with executives, secure buy-in, and accelerate impact.

Key Takeaways

• How to get executives excited about your data strategy, not just understand it
• The questions CFOs and Boards ask before approving data investment
• A practical framework for translating data capabilities into business outcomes
• How to move the conversation from “What are you building?” to “What value will it create?”

Key Message: Boards don’t buy data strategies. They buy the business outcomes those strategies enable.