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January 2026 Newsletter Print

President's Report

I hope everyone had a joyous holiday. Well, it’s a brand-new year, 2026 and we have a new program for the members of DAMA NYC. We continue to prepare for DAMA Day 2026 which is our current focus of activity. We are very excited with the prospects of the new year 2026. 

Here are the major highlights for the January newsletter: 

·      The Year at a Glance - What we accomplished

·      DAMA NYC 2026 Program

·      DAMA Day 2026

The Year at a Glance - What we Accomplished

It has been a great year for DAMA NYC and its members. Artificial Intelligence has been the topic in the newspapers and on all the news shows. DAMA NYC is no exception. Let’s take a look back and celebrate a few of the many things we featured in the year 2025:

DAMA NYC 2025 Program – We had a top-notch program this year and we wish to thank all of our speakers and Patrons for being a part of it. The program covered a number of different areas; Artificial Intelligence, Data Ethics, Data Leadership, Data Monetization, Data Architecture and Data Governance.  Here is a partial list of our speakers: Sunil Soares, Dr. Peter Aiken, Kash Mehdi, and Claire Frankel.

Master Class – On May 21, 2025, Dr. Peter Aiken conducted our first Master Class. The Topic was, “AI and its effects on Data Leadership, Data Monetization, and Data Governance”.  It greatly enhanced DAMA Day as it was bundled with the total event across two days. Once again, here is a copy of the abstract: Data Management becomes more powerful when you can leverage the individual components to maximize data value. In this AI Master Class, we will specifically focus on using AI to maximize Data Governance, Data Monetization, and Data Leadership.

DAMA Day 2025- On May 22nd, we had a great DAMA Day event with Dr. Peter Aiken as our Keynote speaker. The Theme was – “The Secret Sauce, Data Ethics in the age of AI: Building Trust and Fair Technologies”. We had sponsorship from DataGalaxy, Denodo, Factspan, GlobalID, Metaintegration, Sandhill and Teameclipse.  A special highlight of the event was, the Speaker Panel. Participants got to ask the experts on the panel questions on the topic of AI. We thank you all who participated and look forward to DAMA Day which will be on May 7, 2026.

Special CDMP Prep Class – We had a very special event on September 10th at the Bank of China. Robert Lutton and Jeff Giles, Sandhill Consulting and Quest Software, conducted a free CDMP Prep Class. It was for DAMA NYC Members who signed up for the DAMAI certification exam.  We have a total of 38 people registered attend the class. The event was a big success and a special thanks to Sandhill consulting, Quest Software and the Bank of China for their support. We know that the class helped prepare those who signed up for the CDMP Certification exam. We look forward to having more classes in the future.

DAMA NYC 2026 Program 

Month

Event

Speaker

Affiliation

Presentation

15-Jan-26

Monthly Meeting

Sunil Soares

Tavro AI

 Aligning Agentic AI Governance & Data Risk

 

 

19-Feb-26

Monthly Meeting

Danette McGilvray

Granite Falls

Data Quality; The Secret Sauce that makes Data Governance, Data Literacy, and Artificial Intelligence Taste so Good

 

 

 

 

19-Mar-26

Monthly Meeting

Sanjay Pattni, Michael Evie

Eclipse Consulting

 Your Data Management Strategy Is Only as Strong as Its Weakest Link
The Hidden Cost of Bad Data: Why Every Organization Needs a Data Risk Agenda

 

16-Apr-26

Monthly Meeting

Dan Power

Hubdesigns

 Successful AI- avoiding the "Garbage-in Garbage-out Syndrome"

 

DAMA Day 2026: May 7, 2026

Bank of China 1045 Avenue of the Americas NYC

"Unleash the power of AI in Data Management"

 AI can revolutionize data management by automating mundane tasks, improving data quality, enabling deeper analysis, and bolstering security and compliance. Essentially, AI is only as effective as the data it processes, and data literacy ensures that this foundation is strong, leading to more powerful and trustworthy AI-driven outcomes. Here's how AI unleashes its power in data management:

Enhancing Data Quality and Consistency- AI algorithms are adept at identifying and correcting errors, inconsistencies, and duplicates in data. AI-driven tools can perform data profiling to identify key attributes and statistical properties, as well as data lineage tracking to identify the origin and transformation of data, improving overall data quality and reliability.

  • Automating Data Integration and Transformation- AI streamlines the often-complex process of integrating data from diverse sources and formats. Machine learning models can automatically map data fields, detect relationships, and suggest transformations, significantly reducing the manual effort involved in data integration.

  • Revolutionizing Data Analysis and Insights- AI empowers businesses to extract actionable insights from vast datasets with unparalleled speed and accuracy. Automated Insights: AI-powered analytics tools can automatically uncover hidden trends and patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed.

  • Strengthening Data Governance and Security- AI strengthens data governance by automating compliance monitoring, enforcing access controls, and identifying potential security threats.

  • Optimizing Storage and Infrastructure- AI can optimize data storage by analyzing usage patterns and predicting future data access needs. AI-driven systems can suggest when to archive, replicate, or compress data, leading to reduced storage costs and increased efficiency.

  • Enhancing Master Data Management (MDM)- AI strengthens MDM by identifying and resolving duplicate records, improving data consistency, and automating data matching and validation processes.

Join us at DAMA Day 2026 on May 7, 2026 and learn how each Sponsor is using their product or services to Unleash the power of AI in Data Management. 

Denis Kosar, President DAMA NYC

 

 

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Upcoming Events

January 15, 2026 Virtual Meeting Sunil Soares, Tavro AI, "Aligning Agentic AI Governance & Data Risk"

Register Now

           

January 15, 2026 Virtual meeting                

Aligning Agentic AI Governance & Data Risk

Sunil Soares, Tavro AI

Autonomous and semi-autonomous AI agents are transforming how businesses operate—taking on tasks, making decisions, and interacting with systems and users with minimal human input.

The session presents a 13-part Agentic AI Governance Framework, grounded in real-world case studies and practical application. Participants will learn to identify the core characteristics of AI agents and navigate issues such as bias mitigation, human-in-the-loop design, security vulnerabilities, intellectual property concerns, data privacy, and compliance with global regulations like the EU AI Act and U.S. sector-specific laws.

  • Identify the characteristics and functional capabilities of AI agents across different industries.
  • Recognize governance challenges and implications related to the deployment of agentic AI systems.
  • Gain a working knowledge of global AI regulations, including the EU AI Act and U.S. sector-specific laws.
  • Understand the importance of Data Risk.
  • Apply risk management strategies tailored to the lifecycle of AI agents.
  • Assess AI systems for bias, fairness, reliability, security, and transparency.
  • Clarify organizational roles and responsibilities for AI governance, including the function of a Chief AI Officer.
  • Evaluate and implement human oversight mechanisms and explainability requirements.

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Speaker Biography:

Sunil Soares is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tavro AI, which focuses on AI Governance and Data Risk. Prior to this role, Sunil was the Founder and CEO of Information Asset, a data management firm, which he sold to private equity.

Sunil is the author of 13 books on data and AI, including AI Governance Comprehensive, Agentic AI Governance, The IBM Data Governance Unified Process, Selling Information Governance to the Business, Big Data Governance, Data Governance Tools, Data Governance Guide for BCBS 239 and DFAST Compliance, and The Chief Data Officer Handbook for Data Governance.

In the past, Sunil also worked as an auditor at PwC and as a management consultant at Booz and Company. Sunil has an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Co-Founder & CEO
Tavro AI
Data & AI Governance Agents

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