From data to context: Enabling business-ready AI
You are invited to join Data & Technology leaders in Naples, FL, on October 4 – 7, for the Actian Executive CAB Meeting.
Overview
October 4 – 7, 2026 | Naples, Florida
Join us for an exclusive gathering of global CIOs, CDOs, and data and technology leaders for peer-to-peer dialogue on the opportunities and challenges shaping modern data organizations. Through open discussion and shared experiences, members will explore topics such as fostering strong data cultures, building effective data products, balancing centralized and federated governance models, addressing data sovereignty requirements, and overcoming the barriers that cause AI initiatives to stall.
Actian executives will share our strategic vision and roadmap, offering CAB members an early look at upcoming innovations. Through executive discussions, peer collaboration, and curated experiences, this forum provides a unique opportunity to exchange perspectives and help influence Actian’s long-term priorities.
Itinerary
Arrive at your convenience – we recommend arriving on Saturday to enjoy optional activities on Sunday and departing on Wednesday to enjoy the optional excursions on Tuesday.
Saturday, October 3rd or Sunday, October 4th – Arrival (depending on preference)
Sunday, October 4 – Excursions (optional) followed by welcome reception
Monday, October 5th – Actian Executive CAB Meeting and dinner with Actian ELT, CAB members, and their guests
Tuesday, October 6th – Actian Executive CAB Meeting, followed by an excursion, followed by dinner (optional)
Wednesday, October 7th – Departure
Agenda
7:30 – 8:30 AM – Breakfast
8:30 AM – Welcome & Introductions
This opening session welcomes our global community of data and AI leaders and sets the stage for two days of candid, peer-driven conversation on the business challenges shaping data and AI strategy today.
Facilitated by Marc Potter, Chief Executive Officer, Actian
9:00 AM – AI Maturity: From Ambition to Execution
Organizations are setting bold ambitions for AI, yet many are struggling to translate that ambition into measurable execution. This panel focuses on organizational and strategic readiness (leadership alignment, funding, and measurement) and puts a direct question to the room: where is the gap between your organization’s stated AI ambition and its actual execution capacity, and what is the single biggest blocker to closing it?
Moderated by Amra Dorjbayar, Chief AI Officer, Actian
9:45 AM – Measuring AI ROI and Business Value
As AI investment accelerates, so does the pressure to demonstrate real return. This customer roundtable discusses how leading organizations are moving beyond adoption metrics, and takes on the question directly: how do you defend AI investment to your own board when returns are hard to quantify?
Presented by Actian Customer
10:30 – 11:00 AM – Break
11:00 AM – Implications to Workforce in the AI Era: Skills, Roles & Operating Models
AI is reshaping the skills, roles, and structures organizations need to succeed. In this roundtable, CAB members answer a specific question: what new roles, skills, or reporting structures has your organization introduced in the past 12 months to operationalize AI, and which of them actually worked?
Presented by Actian Customer
11:45 AM – Data Governance Meets AI Governance: Why the Line Is Disappearing
Data governance and AI governance are converging into a single priority for data leaders this year, not because one replaced the other, but because AI systems have become a new class of data consumer, one operating at a speed and scale that governance built for human users was never designed for. This session explores what that convergence actually demands in practice, and puts a direct question to the room: is your governance model built for this new reality, or still built for the one that came before it?
Presented by Ole Olesen-Bagneux, Chief Evangelist, Actian
12:30 – 1:45 PM – Lunch
1:45 PM – Data Sovereignty: Trust, Compliance and Control in the AI Era
Data sovereignty has moved from a specialist compliance topic to a strategic, board-level priority. This session shares third-party analyst findings on the regulatory and geopolitical landscape and opens a direct discussion: how is your organization weighing data sovereignty and vendor geography in your own platform decisions today?
Presented by Emma McGrattan, CTO, Actian
2:30 PM – Security and Resilience in an AI-Enabled Enterprise
Security leaders are now investing more heavily in AI than in securing it, even as AI expands the attack surface through new applications, agents, and integrations. This session follows one organization’s modernization journey: what prompted the shift, where resilience was tested, and what changed in how security and AI now work together.
Moderated by Nick Fuller, VP of Technology, Equifax
3:15 – 3:45 PM – Break
3:45 PM – Business Intelligence: Competing or Converging with AI?
For decades, business intelligence has meant dashboards, reports, and the analysts who build them. AI-driven analytics is now challenging that model directly, offering conversational, agent-led answers. This session explores where BI is really headed: is this a genuine competition between two approaches to analytics, or are they converging into something new, and what should organizations be investing in over the next few years to stay ahead?
Panelists include Trent Maynard, Director, Product and Engineering, Global Shop Solutions
4:30 PM – Day 1 Recap & Key Takeaways
A facilitated look back at Day 1’s conversations, capturing the key themes and insights CAB members want to carry into Day 2.
Facilitated by Jennifer Jackson, Chief Marketing Officer, Actian
6:30 PM – Dinner
7:30 – 8:30 AM – Breakfast
8:30 AM – From Data Trust to AI Readiness: An LSEG Perspective
Terrance Hedin, Data and Metadata Platform Director for London Stock Exchange Group, shares how LSEG’s five-year journey to strengthen data trust, governance, lineage, and customer data transparency has created a strong foundation for AI readiness, and what it means for other organizations navigating the same path.
Presented by Terrance Hedin, Data & Metadata Platform Director, LSEG
9:15 AM – Data Products and Data Contracts as Drivers of AI Readiness
As organizations scale AI, questions of data ownership, structure, and trust become a strategic imperative. This session makes the case for why data products and data contracts are becoming foundational to enterprise AI readiness, and asks directly: who in your organization owns data as a product today, and what would need to change for that ownership model to scale?
Panelists include Sridher Arumugham, VP and Chief Data Analytics Officer, DigiKey
Moderated by Jean-Georges Perrin, Office of the CTO
10:00- 10:30 AM – Break
10:30 AM – Actian Vision & CAB Feedback: Looking Forward
Actian’s leadership shares its strategic direction and vision for the future of data and AI, followed by a structured, interactive discussion to gather CAB members’ direct feedback on where Actian should focus next.
Presented by Guillaume Bodet, Chief Product Officer, Actian
12:00 PM – Day 2 Recap & What’s Next for CAB
A short facilitated close capturing key takeaways from the 2026 CAB and next steps for the CAB community, ahead of the afternoon excursion.
Facilitated by Karen Devine, Chief Customer Officer, Actian
12:30 – 1:30 PM – Lunch
Featured Speakers
Emma McGrattan
Chief Technology Officer, Actian
As Chief Technology Officer at Actian, Emma McGrattan leads the company’s technology strategy, innovation, and product development in support of Actian’s mission to simplify how companies connect, manage, govern, and analyze data to transform businesses. Since joining the company three decades ago, Emma has played a pivotal role in the evolution and advancement of its analytics, data integration, and data management solutions, including the Actian Data Platform.
A prominent figure in the database industry, Emma is known for her expertise in data architecture, query optimization, and cloud transformation. Her leadership and contributions to these areas are widely recognized, making her a respected voice at technology events.
Passionate about creating a sustainable, inclusive future for technology, Emma is a celebrated advocate for women in tech and an active mentor dedicated to fostering inclusive cultures within the industry.
Emma holds a degree in Electronic Engineering from Dublin City University in Ireland.
Guillaume Bodet
Chief Product Officer, Actian
Guillaume Bodet is a visionary product leader with an entrepreneurial spirit, combining deep technical expertise with a passion for building and scaling innovative businesses. As Chief Product Officer at Actian, he leads the vision, strategy, and roadmap for Actian’s data management and intelligence solutions, ensuring organizations can effectively harness and govern their data at scale.Guillaume’s career began as a software engineer. Over the years, he has held significant roles, including Principal Consultant on Distributed Architectures at Borland, CTO and Associate Partner at Xebia, and CTO – Head of Product & Engineering at Finance Active. His journey culminated in co-founding Zeenea, a pioneering data catalog company acquired by Actian in 2024, where he served as CPTO and played a critical role in shaping modern metadata management.With over 15 years of experience in data architecture, analytics, and machine learning, Guillaume is committed to delivering market-leading solutions that bridge technology and business needs.
Ole Olesen-Bagneux
Chief Evangelist
Ole Olesen-Bagneux is a globally recognized thought leader in metadata management and enterprise data architecture. As VP, Chief Evangelist at Actian, he drives industry awareness and adoption of modern approaches to data intelligence, drawing on his extensive expertise in data management, metadata, data catalogs, and decentralized architectures. An accomplished author, Ole has written The Enterprise Data Catalog (O’Reilly, 2023). He is currently working on Fundamentals of Metadata Management (O’Reilly, 2025), introducing a novel metadata architecture known as the Meta Grid. With a PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Copenhagen, his unique perspective bridges traditional information science with modern data management.
Before joining Actian, Ole has served as Chief Evangelist at Zeenea, where he played a key role in shaping and communicating the company’s technology vision. His industry experience includes leadership roles in enterprise architecture and data strategy at major pharmaceutical companies like Novo Nordisk.Ole is passionate about scalable metadata architectures, knowledge graphs, and enabling organizations to make data truly discoverable and usable.
Jean-Georges Perrin
Technology Strategist, Office of the CTO, Actian
Jean-Georges Perrin (“JGP”) is part of Actian’s Office of the CTO, where he helps shape the company’s vision for Data Products, Data Contracts, and modern data architectures. With more than 25 years of experience in data architecture—including a tenure as Principal Architect at Expedia—he now chairs the Linux Foundation’s Bitol project, driving the Open Data Contract Standard (ODCS).
The author of Building Data Products, Implementing Data Mesh, and Spark in Action, JGP is a recognized thought leader, Lifetime IBM Champion, and Data Mesh MVP dedicated to helping organizations balance data governance with innovation.
Amra Dorjbayar
Chief AI Officer, Actian
Amra Dorjbayar is a co-founder of Wobby (acquired by Actian in 2026) and the lead behind the Actian AI Analyst. A former award-winning investigative and data journalist, Amra spent many years uncovering stories within complex datasets. He leveraged that expertise to build “agentic” AI systems that democratize data access through natural language.
Venue: The Ritz Carlton, Naples
The Ritz-Carlton, Naples is a luxury resort set along the pristine white sands of Florida’s Gulf Coast, offering a sophisticated escape defined by over four decades of legendary service. Beyond its elegant accommodations, the resort is a premier destination for travelers seeking a seamless blend of relaxation, refinement, and coastal beauty.
Stronger together
The Actian Executive Customer Advisory Board (CAB) is an executive customer program for Actian to optimize our company and product strategy with our most strategic customers through collaboration and executive engagement. Your valued feedback will inform how we approach our strategy, re-imagine new solutions and ensure alignment with our customers and the market.
Our commitment is to build enduring value for our customers. Your experience, thought leadership, and engagement will help us learn more about our customers’ needs — and be stronger partners with you.
Thank you for your participation and commitment to this opportunity.
Marc Potter, CEO
Actian Team
How can we help?
To request an invitation to the meeting or for any questions, please contact: