SCOTT TAYLOR - The Data Whisperer

Let me help you TELL YOUR DATA STORY 

I can be your voice for Data Management 

Partnering with Enterprises and innovative Data Brands that want to change the nature of data management - and help them tell their story!

As **The Data Whisperer** I help "calm data down" 

I am a firm believer in “making your data do the work,” and have enlightened countless business executives to the value of proper data management by focusing on the strategic rationale and business alignment rather than technical implementation and system integration. 

I'm more of the strategic WHY than the technical HOW. 

I have spent over two decades solving master data challenges with large global enterprises as well as guiding Tech Brand owners to leverage their reference data and taxonomy assets.  

In a variety of strategic marketing, GTM, innovation and consulting roles, I have worked with some of the world’s most iconic business data brands including Dun & Bradstreet, Nielsen, Microsoft, Kantar, NPD as well as start-ups such as Qoints and Spiceworks.  

I'm an avid business evangelist and original thinker, and continually share my passion for the strategic value of foundational data through public speaking opportunities, blogs, videos, whitepapers, podcasts and all forms of marketing content. 

Highly effective strategic Subject Matter Expert/SME working directly with sales and alliances to reinforce the value of data management.

If you are an innovative Tech Brand looking to change the very nature of data management let me help you tell a better story!

The Data Whisperer & Principal Consultant

MetaMeta: "It's about what it's about"

We are a strategic marketing consultancy focused on partnering with innovative Tech Brands that seek to change the nature of enterprise data management - and want help to tell that story.  Our experience is rooted in helping countless business executives understand the strategic value of proper data management.  Data has never been hotter but Tech Brands can't always break through the clutter.  We are proponents of compelling messaging that is also technically accurate. 

Sending warm Antigua 🇦🇬 thoughts to all my freezing data friends in the northeast during the blizzard.  I’m using a CARRIBEAN WEATHER COCONUT 🥥 as my forecasting tool.  

OG analog but working great so far…

If it's...then it's… 

Hot...hot 🥵
Cold...cold 🥶
Moving...windy 💨
Wet...rainy  ☔️
White...snowing ❄️
Hard to see...foggy 🌫️
Bouncing...earthquake 🫨
Under water...flood 🌊
Gone...hurricane 🌀
On fire…Volcano eruption 🌋

SCOTT TAYLOR

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Malcolm Hawker

Thought Leader | CDO | Data Strategy | Master Data Management | Data Governance | Host of the CDO Matters Podcast

With over 25 years of experience in data and analytics, I am a recognized thought leader and advisor in the fields of Master Data Management (MDM) and Data Governance. I have helped some of the world's largest businesses to improve their enterprise information management strategies, and I enjoy sharing practical and actionable insights on how to leverage data as a strategic asset.

As the CDO for Profisee, I lead the global field MDM and Data Governance practice, and I am the host of the CDO Matters podcast, where I interview senior data leaders from various industries and domains. My mission is to raise the awareness and value of MDM and Data Governance to companies across the globe, and to empower them with the best practices and solutions to overcome their data quality challenges and achieve their business goals.

Head of Data Strategy

Knowledge management is already happening across your organization.

It’s just happening in silos.

This was one of the most important insights I took away from KM World last year in D.C.

Many functions are building taxonomies.
Many teams are defining hierarchies.
Ontologies are emerging in pockets and various applications across the enterprise.

But the metadata underpinning them - customers, products, locations, suppliers - often lacks consistent, shared definitions.

This wouldnt be a problem if the data only lived in these individual silos of KM, but it doesnt.  

It's data being shared widely, for both analytical and operational purposes.  
  
So what do we really have?

Fragmented meaning.

I believe knowledge management is the key to unlocking the latent value trapped in unstructured data - and to governing that data safely as we expose it to AI agents.

And if 2026 truly becomes “the year of the ontology,” as many predict, this issue will only become more urgent.

But here’s the problem.

KM today is largely happening inside functional silos, with limited cross-functional governance and little coordination with enterprise data management.

At the same time, we lack shared governance policies and common definitions for the metadata that spans both structured and unstructured environments - including for our shared master data.  

Ironically, we can’t even agree on the terminology for how we capture definitions - controlled vocabularies? data definitions? business glossaries?

We are trying to scale AI without first scaling shared meaning.

So yes - context matters.  

But a lack of any cohesive management over the data and processes which help us to understand meaning - and more importantly - integrate that meaning into the systems and processes supporting AI, is a massive problem. 

So how do we fix it?

How do data and knowledge leaders converge around shared governance, shared semantics, and shared accountability?

I’d love to hear how others are approaching this.

#knoweldgemanagement #KM #datamanagement

CDO | Author | Keynote Speaker | Podcast Host

Data governance isn’t about control, it’s about enabling confident action at scale.

In an AI-driven world, data governance must move beyond static policies and single versions of the truth to become adaptive, context-aware, and tightly aligned with business outcomes.

If governance isn’t accelerating trust and decision-making, is it really governance - or just bureaucracy?

Think of governance like the brakes on a high-performance car.

Brakes don’t make the car slow.
They make it possible to go fast.
Without them, you drive cautiously.
With them, you accelerate with confidence.

AI is increasing the potential velocity of every business function.  

If governance doesn’t evolve to support that speed, then the business will continue to ignore it, or find other solutions. 

A practical first step towards a more modern approach to data governance: stop governing data in isolation. 

Identify *one* high-value business process and align definitions, quality expectations, and stewardship responsibilities around one outcome supported by that process - especially where AI will consume the data.

Define and implement the minimum governance policies needed to support the desired outcome - and then do it again for another outcome.

Avoid frameworks, and focus on value. 

This is how you can evolve your governance program to one that enables the business to move faster, with confidence, in the places that matter most.

#datagovernance #governance #ai

I just published a new episode of the CDO Matters podcast, and I’m excited to share this one.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Karthik Ravindran, General Manager of Data & AI Go-To-Market at Microsoft. 

Karthik and I have worked together for several years across the Azure ecosystem and Purview initiatives, and I’ve consistently appreciated his perspective on where data and AI are headed.

This conversation is particularly relevant for senior data leaders who are under pressure to translate AI ambition into measurable business value.

A few highlights from our discussion:

🔹 Data as a Product, Not a Project
Karthik brings a strong product management lens to data.  We discuss what it really means to move beyond one-off initiatives and build durable data capabilities aligned to customer and business outcomes.  For many organizations, this remains an unfinished journey.

🔹 Lessons from Building Microsoft’s Internal Data Office
Karthik shares insights from his time leading Microsoft’s internal data office and helping bring Purview to market.  One key theme: governance and innovation are not competing priorities.  When structured properly, governance becomes an accelerator.

🔹 AI Is a Leadership Challenge
We spend meaningful time on AI. The technology is advancing quickly.  The harder part is organizational alignment, operating model clarity, and integrating AI into how work actually gets done.  Treating AI as just another platform deployment is a mistake.

🔹 Overcoming the Barriers to Value
Silos between data, analytics, and data science. Misalignment between go-to-market and data strategy. Unclear accountability.  These are the real friction points preventing value realization.  They require executive leadership, not just technical remediation.

What makes this episode valuable is Karthik’s breadth of experience.  With more than two decades at Microsoft spanning engineering, product, governance, and global go-to-market, he has seen this evolution from multiple angles.

If you’re navigating the pressure to make AI deliver tangible results, I think you’ll find this conversation worth your time.

You can find the episode wherever you get your podcasts. I’d be interested in your reactions after you listen.

Now available on your podcast provider of choice:  
🎙️ https://lnkd.in/gPDMJGhR

My many thanks to Karthik Ravindran for sharing his wealth of knowledge with the CDO Matters Community!

It's official.  The crypto bubble has burst - and this time - possibly for good. 

I fell down the blockchain rabbit hole in 2020, and ever since, I've been a fervent believer. 

Not because I'm seeking a 'get rich quick' scheme. 

But because I firmly believe in blockchain technology - especially when it comes to data management applications. 

I believed then - as I still believe now - that the combination of AI agents, operating within blockchain-supported data sharing and monetization networks, will provide insights and economies of scale from data unlike anything we've ever seen before.  

But the crypto implosion likely means we're still several years away from this future state, as billions of investment dollars are flowing out of blockchain and into other platforms. 

And sadly, many of these platforms are even more speculative than crypto.  

The retail 'investors' that fueled the manic boom-and-bust cycles are moving their money out crypto, opting instead for the dopamine rich environments of sports betting and prediction markets - proving that for many, crypto was always mostly about gambling. 

But, that's not me. 

I still believe in blockchain technology, and I remain invested in it.  

I just wont strike it rich from those beliefs anytime soon. 

Sigh. 

What about you?  If you have investments in crypto, are you optimistic, or pessimistic?  

#blockchain #datamanagement #datasharing

What's a semantic architecture?  How can we integrate the worlds of data and knowledge management? 

If you find these questions intriguing - then you should plan to join me and Bram Wessel, a founding partner at Factor, tomorrow at 12pm EST.  

In tomorrow's free webinar Bram and I will go deep on the issue of how semantic architectures enable AI ROI. 

This semantic architecture goes by many different names.  

A data fabric.  
A context layer.  
A semantic fabric.
A converged data management platform.  
Just to name a few...

But whatever you call it, it's playing an increasingly critical role in our ability to leverage our legacy structured data, and the data management disciplines which support it, in support of agentic AI workflows.  

If you're interested in learning more - join us tomorrow! 

Link to register:  https://lnkd.in/dp3RgsTg

Bram Wessel Gwen Hall Bob Kasenchak Gary Carlson

Have you ever wondered data leaders who embrace 'best practices' still struggle with driving value from data? 

If yes, you need to check out my latest guest podcast appearance on the Actian's 'Enterprise Wide Search' podcast, featuring my friend Ole Olesen-Bagneux and Actian's CTO, Emma McGrattan.  

Check it out! 🎙️

Chief Evangelist @ Actian | O’Reilly Author: Fundamentals of Metadata Management (2025), The Enterprise Data Catalog (2023)

Malcolm Hawker, author of The Data Hero Playbook and a long time friend joined Emma McGrattan and me on Enterprise Wide Search for a very honest conversation

Malcolm Hawker joined us for conversation based on his book. His honesty is really brave, we need more of this to succeed with data for AI. Listen her

Open article: Enterprise Wide Search 27: The Data Hero Mindset and Why "Best Practices" don't Work by Ole Olesen-Bagneux • 1 min read

Enterprise Wide Search 27: The Data Hero Mindset and Why "Best Practices" don't Work

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SCOTT TAYLOR - The Data Whisperer

Malcolm Hawker

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The Battle

SCOTT TAYLOR - The Data Whisperer

Malcolm Hawker

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}SCOTT TAYLOR - The Data Whisperer's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreSCOTT TAYLOR - The Data Whisperer's LinkedIn Performance