Heidi Lanford

Board term: 2015-present

Heidi Lanford has over 30 years of global strategy and operations leadership experience and is a frequent keynote speaker on topics such as data strategy and data literacy. She is the co-founder and principal at NavAlytix.AI, focused on the adoption, impact, and outcomes of AI. Lanford also serves as a strategic advisor to early-stage AI companies, advising on product roadmap and positioning, go-to-market strategy, and partnerships.

Previously, she served as the Chief Data Officer at Fitch Group, one of the big three credit ratings agencies. In this role, she was responsible for Fitch’s data across all divisions and products and for leading their digital transformation to harness data in order to provide next-generation tools for clients.

Lanford joined Fitch from Red Hat (IBM), where she was Vice President of Enterprise Data & Analytics, leading strategy and execution across analytics, business intelligence, data science, AI/ML, data literacy education, data architecture, and governance. She previously held executive-level positions with Avaya and WPP. She was an advisor for HearstLab, which provides investment and services to early-stage, women-led technology startups. She serves on the advisory board for the School of Data Science at the University of Virginia, a role she has held since 2015. She is also on the editorial board for CDO Magazine and is a founding board member for Tableau’s Data Leadership Collaborative, which connects like-minded leaders who are building data-driven organizations.