Chris Hudson — Data Governance & Public-Sector Data Strategy
Chicago, Illinois Open to new consulting engagements2hudsoc@gmail.com
DATA GOVERNANCE & MASTER DATA STRATEGY

Trusted counsel for enterprises that run on data. Governance, stewardship, and data quality — done right.

I design the governance frameworks, stewardship programs, and data quality controls that let Fortune 500 organizations trust the data behind every decision, from the data catalog to the boardroom.

4+Years in Practice
6Enterprise Engagements
4Platform Certifications
16Business Domains Governed
Engagements With Capgemini· Abbott Laboratories· PepsiCo· Vertiv· BNSF Railway· Light & Wonder
About

A Governance Practice Built on Trust

Trustworthy data isn't a byproduct of good business — it's the foundation of it.

Chris Hudson

I'm a data governance, stewardship, and data quality consultant with over four years of experience designing the frameworks that let large organizations trust — and act on — their own data. As a Senior Consultant at Capgemini, I've led governance engagements for Fortune 500 companies across hospitality, industrial manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, gaming, rail, and consumer goods, building the roles, policies, and stewardship structures that turn scattered data into a managed asset.

My work sits at the intersection of policy and practice: writing the rules that govern how data is defined, owned, and used, then building the tools and training that make those rules actually stick. That combination — clear policy, workable process, and buy-in from the people who touch the data every day — is what turns a governance program from a binder on a shelf into something an organization actually runs on.

Selected Work

Case Study: Enterprise Metadata at Scale

Building the first AI-assisted metadata validation framework for a global hospitality client's data catalog

Data Domain Steward · 2024–Present

Problem

Metadata curation for the enterprise data catalog was entirely manual — about two asset descriptions per minute — done in spreadsheets, then re-keyed into the catalog. Stakeholder sign-off was slow, deadlines slipped, and stale metadata was eroding trust in the platform itself.

Strategy

Design an AI-assisted validation process within six hard constraints: no new budget, one month to deliver, zero disruption to adoption, full compliance with existing governance and security standards, and no changes to the current tech stack.

Execution

  • Discovery & root-cause analysis (1 day)
  • Drafted an AI-enabled metadata framework (3 days)
  • Stewardship team feedback (1 day)
  • Testing (4 days)
  • Documentation, rollout & training (2 days)

Delivered

  • AI metadata validation framework (Excel-based, seven-dimension quality check)
  • How-to and scaling documentation
  • Updated workflow for stewardship use
  • Live demos for the stewardship team
+200%Faster Curation
30 DaysEffort Removed
1stAI Policy Created
~6,000Assets Cataloged
Experience

Track Record

January 2022 — Present

Capgemini

Senior Consultant I, Chicago IL
  • Developing tailored data governance solutions to address client-specific challenges across industries — engagements spanning hospitality, industrial technology, pharmaceuticals, gaming, rail, and consumer goods.
May 2024 — Present

Hospitality Industry Client (under NDA) — Data Domain Steward

  • Led data governance workshops onboarding business units onto the enterprise governance program, producing an org-wide view of governance maturity
  • Supported 3 projects across 16 business domains, improving governance documentation, data quality, and policy
  • Managed metadata for the consumer domain — data dictionaries, business glossaries, and source documentation
July 2023 — April 2024

Vertiv — Senior Data Governance Analyst

  • Implemented governance frameworks and policies to manage Master Data, establishing formal data ownership
  • Built training programs for domain leaders, producing a self-sustaining steering committee across all 7 mastered domains
November 2022 — July 2023

Abbott Laboratories — Data Governance Analyst

  • Authored an 87-page data governance handbook covering roles, principles, RACI diagrams, stoplight reporting, and a roadmap for future projects
  • Partnered with IT and business units on a standardized global approach, driving engagement across LATAM, NA, EMEA, and APAC
July 2022 — November 2022

Light & Wonder — Data Governance Analyst

  • Established a two-year enterprise data strategy roadmap aligning business objectives with governance and MDM
  • Mapped end-to-end data flows across all mastered domains, documenting residency, integration points, and lineage
June 2022 — July 2022

BNSF Railroad — Data Governance Analyst

  • Ran a data governance maturity assessment across cultural, tooling, operational, and audit-readiness dimensions to identify gaps and opportunities
March 2022 — June 2022

PepsiCo — Data Governance Analyst

  • Coordinated offshore resource onboarding through documentation and knowledge transfer
  • Built a data quality framework and governance process, standing up a new governance council and steward taskforce
Capabilities

Areas of Practice

Governance & Strategy

  • Data governance implementation
  • Master data management
  • Data strategy & roadmapping
  • Compliance policy design
  • Data quality KPIs
  • RACI & stewardship models
  • Root cause analysis

Platforms & Tools

  • Collibra Data Catalog
  • Alation Data Catalog
  • Informatica IDQ
  • Alteryx
  • Power BI · Tableau
  • Salesforce (Classic & Lightning)
  • Microsoft 365 suite

Technical

  • SQL · Python · Java
  • HTML · CSS · JavaScript
  • Python: Pandas, NumPy, NetworkX
  • Agile methodologies
  • Business & statistical analysis
  • Persona & process design
Credentials

Certifications & Education

Informatica Data Quality (IDQ) Data AnalystData Quality: Data Quality Management for Developers — Informatica LLC
2025
Informatica Analyst (OnDemand)Informatica University
2022
MongoDB SI Associate CertificationMongoDB
2025
Agile Software DevelopmentUniversity of Minnesota, via Coursera
2022
Education

B.S. in Informatics, Business Concentration

Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

Let's Have a Conversation.

Open to conversations with organizations building out or strengthening their data governance function — whether that's a first hire, a stalled program, or a team that needs a steady hand.