Chief Data and Analytics Officer

Leading Change 

People often dislike uncertainty at work and often fear or avoid change altogether. One of the most important roles of leadership then is to manage change and cope with uncertainty in your teams and organizations. This session explores the challenges and opportunities involved in change management, especially the areas of employee resistance, how to overcome it, and how to champion results. This session is a joint session with other C-Suite participants. 

Faculty:  

• Dr. Tori Grady, Associate Professor of Management, School of Business, George Mason University 

Being a Leader in the C-Suite 

This session builds your capacity to engage in the successful practices of leadership as a member of the C-Suite. The emphasis is on your way of being as a leader (the observer you are) and enhancing your capacity to declare commitments to future possibilities and engage others in sharing and fulfilling those commitments. The Session discusses the importance of context in confronting managerial challenges and creating opportunities. Explores the role of leadership in shaping conversations that create empowering contexts for organizational actions. 

Faculty:  

• Dr. Greg Unruh, Arison Chair in Values Leadership, Associate Professor, College of Humanities and Social Science, George Mason University. 

Relational-Based Leadership 

It is up to leaders to create an environment in which individuals find meaning and motivation, perform, thrive, and are resilient. This comes not just from money or prestige, but because of the positive relationships they hold at work. This session allows individuals to appreciate how leaders can improve by taking a relational view towards others in the organization. To lead is to speak directly to the workforce, to understand their concerns, pinch points, frustrations, and pain. Taking a relational view goes beyond your individual relationship with each employee; it encompasses understanding the network of employee relationships. 

Faculty:  

• Dr. Kevin Rockmann, Professor of Management, School of Business, George Mason University. 

Creating a Positive Corporate Culture 

Introduces the construct of emotional culture and demonstrates the importance of cultivating a positive emotional culture for employees, teams, divisions, and organizations. Distinguishing among the key emotions impacting culture and describing how individuals and organizations can achieve enhanced employee health and wellbeing. Provide evidence-based techniques that managers can integrate into their daily work practices to increase personal and professional success. 

Faculty:  

• Mandy O’Neill, Associate Professor of Management, School of Business, George Mason University. 

Building Business Acumen for the C-Suite 

Provides an overview to the principles and practices of business acumen; what separates C-Suite Executives who excel from those who do not; and how to successfully engage with other members of the C-Suite by applying the principles to everyday conversations and interactions. This session is a joint session with other C-Suite participants. 

Faculty:  

• Dr. Tom Davies, Executive-in-Residence, School of Business, George Mason University 

Value Creation and Customer/Stakeholder Equity 

In this session, participants will learn how executives make decision to create, communicate, capture, and deliver value to their customers or stakeholders. Successfully developing and deploying a critical value-based strategy that focuses on maximizing customer/stakeholder value and need satisfaction is essential for organizational performance and mission successful. 

Faculty:  

• Dr. Brett W. Josephson, Associate Professor of Marketing, School of Business, George Mason University. 

Business & Sustainability 

Historically, social expectations of businesses have been limited to the creation of wealth for shareholders and the simultaneous creation of jobs and economic development in their communities. Now, however, the last two decades has seen societal expectations shift toward creation social and environmental value in addition to economic returns. This course provides participants with frameworks and strategies they can use to align their business value creation with emerging social and environmental expectations.  

Faculty:  

• Dr. Greg Unruh, Arison Chair in Values Leadership, Associate Professor, College of Humanities and Social Sciences. 

Innovation 

This session strengthens the participant’s innovation acumen by acquainting them with the latest thinking on innovation and exposing them to proven strategies and best practices to transforming promising ideas into actionable innovations that move their organizations forward. 

Faculty:  

• Dr. Tom Davies, Executive-in-Residence, School of Business, George Mason University 

Strategic Thinking, Value Proposition Models and Mission Fulfillment 

This session provides analytical tools to focus on value creation in an organization through the concept of business model innovation and its links to strategic management and strategic thinking. This session is a joint session with other C-Suite participants. 

Faculty:  

• Dr. Mahesh Joshi, Associate Professor of Management, School of Business, George Mason University 

Developing and Executing a Strategic Plan 

In this session, participants will gain an understanding of what is strategy. Identify links between organizations and types of strategy as well as how resources and assets link to different business models and mission objectives. 

Faculty: 

• Dr. Mahesh Joshi, Associate Professor of Management, School of Business, George Mason University. 

Business Models for Data Drive Organizations

This topic will introduce participants to the business model canvas and to demonstrate the role of data and analytics in each component of the canvas. The focus of this topic is to help you reflect on your organization as a data-driven organization and to discuss how data and analytics can improve effectiveness of your operations and mission.

Faculty: 

• Nirup Menon, Professor of Information Systems and Operations Management, School of Business, George Mason University

Digital Storytelling

By completing this topic, you will be able to identify elements of best visualization and storytelling practices and areas of improvement when applied to your specific context. This topic should give you relevant background needed towards developing a culture for data-driven storytelling, eventually becoming part of an overall data and management strategy of your organization. 

Faculty:

• Dr. Dieter Pfoser, Professor and Chair, Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science; Director, Center for Geointelligence, College of Science, George Mason University

Data Strategy and Architecture

The purpose of this topic is to help participants more effectively execute a data strategy, as well as align stakeholders’ understanding of where key data lives and how it flows through the enterprise.

Faculty:

• Ali Obaidi, Data Engineer, Principal (Mitre Corporation) and Mike Fleckenstein Chief Data Strategist at MITRE

Advanced Data Management

The focus of this topic is to help you reflect on planning and assessment as key activities of data management. Setting up a data management strategy and plan which includes business-focused metrics for data use and impact of analytics can improve the effectiveness of the data and analytics mission of the organization. Committed participation in this topic will impact you and those in your company with whom you share knowledge with to rethink strategies and planning around data and analytics in your organization.

Faculty: 

• Nirup Menon, Professor of Information Systems and Operations Management, School of Business, George Mason University

AI and Machine Learning

In this topic, we are going to be exploring the ways in which AI and ML can aid a CDAO in their journey to turn their organization's data swamp into a data paradise, ripe with relevant and powerful decision-making tools. T

Faculty:

• Brett Josephson, PhD, Associate Dean of Executive Development and Associate Professor of Marketing

Data Governance and Ethics

The purpose of this topic is to help participants understand the essential components of data governance. We look at various approaches to data governance that include both short-term and long-term wins, based on organizational data-culture. This session also covers CDO’s growing involvement to guide organizations in data ethics.

Faculty:

• Ali Obaidi, Data Engineer, Principal (Mitre Corporation) and Mike Fleckenstein Chief Data Strategist at MITRE

A combination of Mason faculty, adjuncts, and subject matter experts teach in the program. 

An advisory council of professionals at the c-suite level help George Mason University develop the program curricula, which is dynamic and changes based on feedback and emerging practices. 

Not at this time. 

Preferred pricing for government employees is $7,650. A promotional code will be provided to those accepted into the program. Please call (703) 993-8275 if you are a Mason employee or would like to discuss a group rate.   

The $8,500 program cost includes all materials, activities, catering, receptions, and a certificate of completion. 

You must first submit an online application. Once accepted into the program, you will be provided directions on how to register and pay. 

Participants should expect to spend six full days at the George Mason University Arlington Campus as well as participating in 5-6 online topics delivered in two-week increments. For each two-week topic there will be approximately 8-10 hours of learning including readings, videos, video presentations, live sessions, discussion boards, and assignments. 

As a hybrid program, topics are covered during two multi-day in-person sessions and online.  

There are six in-person days and approximately four months of online delivery.  

Online topics include a combination of asynchronous components such as discussion boards, presentations, videos, and assignments, as well as live synchronous sessions. Expect one to three scheduled live sessions for each online topic. These generally start between 7 and 8 p.m. ET. Live sessions are recorded and posted the next day. 

Zoom or Blackboard Collaborate is used for live online sessions. A tutorial is provided to participants in pdf form, and an optional live tutorial session is offered as well. All registered participants are given access to Blackboard approximately two weeks prior to the start of the program. 

This is a non-credit executive development program so you will not earn university credit. However, CEUs (continuing education units) authorized by George Mason University are available upon request. At least two weeks prior to the start of the program, please send your request to execdev@gmu.edu. You will be asked to provide additional personal information in order to have your CEUs properly recorded.   

Participants will not be graded, but In order to receive a certificate of completion, participants will need to complete a minimum of 80 percent of the work assigned (including assignments, deliverables, discussion boards, and live sessions). At the end of each topic, faculty are asked to provide a summary of participant’s engagement. 

The maximum number of participants for a single cohort is 20. 

Most participants have at least six years of management experience and are at the director level or above. Approximately half of the participants have been from the public/nonprofit sector and half from the private sector. The average age of participants is 45. 

No. Participants are admitted on a rolling basis up to the start of the program or until the cohort is full.