Chicago Data Night: Dr. Helen Sun and Kader Sakkaria

Welcome to the first monthly Chicago Data Night, cohosted by ChiData and DSI. Practitioners, academics, and aficionados within the Chicago area are all invited to be part of a community at the intersection of industry and academia, brought together by a mutual interest in data. Each month, guest speakers will cover a specific data-related topic. In this first session, speakers will cover Large Language Models and their role in data management. 

Hors d’oeuvres and drinks will be provided. Admission is free, and we strongly encourage filling out an RSVP here.

Agenda
4:00pm:   Doors Open
5:00pm:   Welcome Remarks
5:10pm:    Guest Speakers
6:00pm:   Q&A
6:15pm:    Reception

Meeting Location
The Auditorium at 1871
Merchandise Mart, #1212
222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza
Chicago, IL 60654

Dr. Helen Sun: Before joining Meta as an engineering and AI leader, Helen was Chief Technology Officer at Stats Perform supporting a global tech org of >450 AI Scientist and engineers, and CTO at JP Morgan Chase Commercial Banking. Prior to that, she held various executive roles at Motorola Solutions, Oracle, and Salesforce. Helen is a published author of highly rated titles in big data and analytics including “The Big Data Handbook”, “Master Competitive Analytics with Oracle Endeca Information Discovery”, and “Pro Salesforce Analytics Cloud”. She is a frequent speaker at major conferences, including GOTO CTO Summit, IEEE, Oracle Open World, Hadoop Summit, and The Open Group events. Helen was the graduation ceremony speaker at The University of Toledo, also keynote speaker at The Open Group Big Data Conference. She was the featured speaker at the University of Chicago “Women in Analytics” symposium, and Northwestern University MEM Industry Night. Helen was recognized as Timmy Awards Best Tech Manager of the year 2019, Crain's Tech 50 in 2018, Chicago Business Woman of the Year in 2016, and also a finalist for Orbit CIO of the year award in 2020.

Currently serving as board member for P33 and i.c.stars., Helen has strived to mentor women and other under-represented groups throughout her career. While at Oracle, Helen became the first woman to achieve “Oracle Enterprise Architect” status. She was subsequently honored as “Oracle Enterprise Architect of the Year” for her contributions on critical growth. After this achievement, Helen mentored other women at Oracle, who also achieved this elite status. During her tenure, Helen lead the development of Oracle Information Architecture Framework and Development Process, and published many white papers on Architecture, Big Data, Analytics, and Data Governance.

Kader Sakkaria: Kader is the Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL). Prior to joining RNL, Kader led all of Technology Build and Delivery organization across Cartus. He joined Realogy to oversee Cartus Technology Digital Transformation Strategic Initiatives. Previously, Kader was the Head of Business, Technology and Portfolio Management at BMO Harris Bank. Kader has led large scale technology transformation initiatives for fortune 500 companies like Deloitte and Accenture. He was the country head for TransUnion in South Asia. He has led PMO, offshore delivery centers at various organizations State Farm Insurance, HighMark (Blue Cross Blue Shield of PA), US Foods and Ryder Logistics. He comes with deep vertical expertise in Real Estate, Healthcare, Logistics, Financial Services, Consumer and Industrial Products.

Kader has earned Masters in Computer Science from University of Madras (India) and MBA in Global Management from Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University).