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Colleen Tartow

Senior Director, Enterprise Data Engineering, Capital One

Colleen Tartow, Ph.D. is Senior Director, Enterprise Data Engineering at Capital One and has 20+ years of experience in data, analytics, engineering, and consulting. Adept at assisting organizations in deriving value from a data-driven culture, she has successfully led diverse data, engineering, and analytics teams through the development of complex global data management solutions and architecting enterprise data systems. Her demonstrated excellence in data, engineering, analytics, and diversity leadership makes her a trusted senior advisor among executives. An experienced speaker, prolific author, valued mentor, and startup advisor, Colleen holds degrees in astrophysics and lives in Massachusetts.

Colleen Tartow

Sessions / 2025 / 1 talk

  • No More BS: How (and When) to Really Leverage AI

    Successful AI implementation hinges on a solid foundation of data quality and governance, and the current hype often overshadows the critical practical considerations needed to achieve that foundation. Moreover, while AI holds immense potential, it's crucial to evaluate whether it's truly the optimal solution for a given business problem, as simpler, more established methods may be equally or more effective. We present a practical framework to assess whether AI is the optimal solution, and encourage some good old-fashioned critical thinking. Join Colleen Tartow and Lindsay Murphy for a data-driven conversation exploring AI's true viability.

Sessions / 2024 / 1 talk

  • The Reality of Building a Modern AI Data Stack

    Many data technologists are feeling pressure around the realities and real-life considerations of building out a data stack that can handle the next generation of data problems in addition to today's data challenges. Considerations like minimizing complexity and cost while focusing on scalability and performance are at the forefront of the data world right now, and how this works in a world where LLMs and deep learning are becoming table stakes is paramount. There are questions about data management at this scale as well - e.g. how do you fold this into a Data Mesh, or use Data Products? We'll discuss the modern AI data stack in this talk, going fairly deep on where the industry is now, and how to think through architecting the data ecosystem of the future.

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