October 2023

Deutsche Bank’s Chris Daniels wins prestigious Global Chief Data Officer 100 award

Deutsche Bank Corporate Bank’s Chief Data Officer has been recognised for their success in strategically reshaping the bank’s data function and implementing an “agile” approach

Chris Daniels, Chief Data Officer for Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Bank, has been recognised in the Global CDO 100 for 2023 – an award programme is run by HotTopics, the leading global C-suite community with over 17,000 executives worldwide.

In the award announcement, HotTopics said, “The Global Chief Data Officer top 100 winners are distinguished by their exceptional ability to revolutionise their respective industries or organisations through the strategic utilisation of data, cloud analytics and ML/AI technologies.”

Chris Daniels“We have been focused on embedding our data management best practices within our business to allow agility”
Chris Daniels, Chief Data Officer, Deutsche Bank Corporate Bank

Commenting on the win, Daniels said: “It is an honour to be recognised in this awards programme alongside many of my industry peers. For the past two years we have been focused on embedding our data management best practices within our business to allow agility to self-serve insights they need, when they need it, while keeping pace with industry innovation and an ever-raising bar of expectation for what good data hygiene means.”

He continued, “This has involved fundamental changes in the way we organise our data team, bolstering specialist skills which we offer via Centres of Expertise supporting our agile tribes. And it is great to see that our efforts are not only being recognised internally through our deliveries, but externally through awards such as this.”

The winning formula

Having taken on the role of Chief Data Officer in 2021, Daniels set out to optimise the way Deutsche Bank was integrating and leveraging the data. The challenge was to change the perception and structure of the Corporate Bank data team to ensure they were consistently being connected to tangible business opportunities.

Under Daniels’ leadership, the bank moved from a model that aimed to provide data capabilities without a focussed purpose, to one that was driven by needs originating from the business. By connecting specialists directly with business teams looking for specific solutions, the data team went from being distinct and separate, to one that was woven into the core of Deutsche Bank’s operating model (learn more about Deutsche Bank’s innovative approach in Seize the data).

Today, Daniels leads a global group of ~100, with teams in an agile model covering data product management, data platform (on prem and cloud), data onboarding and pipelines, data science, data modelling, data privacy, reference data adoption and data and records management.

The winners were announced at The Studio, the flagship event hosted by HotTopics at the iconic Abbey Road Studios, where over 200 technology leaders gathered to network, share ideas, and celebrate success in the industry.

For more information on the award, please see here.