Ellen Nielsen is a Board Advisor and CDAIO Executive with more than 30 years of experience spanning IT, digital transformation, procurement, supply chain, and data and AI leadership. She most recently served as Chevron’s first Chief Data Officer, where she led enterprise data strategy and transformation efforts.
Ellen began her career in technical roles across multiple industries, building a strong foundation in systems and operations. She later moved into procurement and supply chain leadership, gaining a deep understanding of how decisions impact financial performance, risk, and end-to-end value chains. These experiences shaped her ability to connect operational priorities with strategic outcomes.
Transitioning into data and AI leadership, Ellen focused on ensuring that technology investments deliver measurable business value. She developed a perspective that data initiatives are most effective when grounded in real operational context and aligned with enterprise goals.
Ellen’s leadership approach emphasizes the importance of bridging business and technology. She believes that data leaders must operate beyond technical domains, speaking the language of the business to drive adoption, alignment, and impact.
Today, Ellen advises organizations on data and AI strategy, helping leadership teams translate complex capabilities into practical, value-driven transformation.
As a data and AI leader, which traits and skills do you think matter most, and which of those have been most influential for you in your current position?
“The traits that matter are business acumen and intellectual curiosity, but the most critical skill for data and AI leadership is change management. You can have the best strategy, the most sophisticated tools, and unlimited budget, but if you don’t meet people where they are, nothing will move forward.
“Cultural change inside a company is the hardest challenge a data and AI leader faces. People need to be brought along, not pushed. That the technology is rarely the obstacle has been the most influential lesson in my career. It’s the human side: building trust, shifting mindsets, and creating an environment where people feel safe enough to change how they work.”
Reflecting on your career, what is one non-traditional piece of advice (outside of technical skills) you would give to an aspiring data or AI leader aiming for the C-suite?
“Deliberately seek roles outside your comfort zone, even if they seem unrelated to data or AI. Some of my most valuable leadership lessons came from running procurement and supply chain organizations, not from technology roles.
“That breadth gave me the business credibility and cross-functional empathy that no data certification ever could. Aspiring data and AI leaders often over-invest in technical skills and under-invest in understanding how a business actually makes money, manages risk, and serves customers.
“The leaders who will thrive are those who can sit across from a CFO or COO and speak their language because they’ve lived it.”