EDI, etc.), it is necessary to have a high-level individual, who possesses a combination of business knowledge, technical skills, and people skills, guide data strategy. Besides the revenue opportunities, acquisition strategy, and customer data policies, the chief data officer is charged with explaining the strategic value of data and its important role as a business asset and revenue driver to executives, employees, and customers. This contrasts with the older view of data systems as mere back-end IT systems. More recently, with the adoption of data science the chief data officer is sometimes looked upon as the key strategy person either reporting to the chief strategy officer or serving the role of CSO in lieu of one. This person has the responsibility of measurement along various business lines and consequently defining the strategy for the next growth opportunities, product offerings, markets to pursue, competitors to look at etc. This is seen in organizations like Chartis, AllState and Fidelity. The role of CDOs is broadly accepted in 2019, 67.9% of major companies reported to have appointed a CDO, up from 12.0% in 2012. Early CDO appointments Cathryne Clay Doss of Capital One was appointed chief data officer in 2002. Usama Fayyad, chief data officer and senior vice president of Yahoo! in 2005. Notable example CDOs Philip Bourne is associate director for data science at the National Institutes of Health Usama Fayyad was the first CDO for Yahoo! in 2004-2009 and also the CDO of Barclays in London from 2013 to 2016. He showed how the role can generate value by creating a $500 million new revenue source based on behavioral Targeting of Ads for Yahoo! in 2008. Ashok Srivastava is the chief data officer of Intuit leading artificial intelligence and machine learning at the company. Industry and geographic trends in CDOs Following the 2008 credit crisis, many major banks and insurance companies created the CDO role to ensure data quality and transparency for regulatory and risk management as well as analytic reporting. CDOs were originally appointed to focus more executive attention outside the traditional compass of the chief information officer (CIO). During the COVID-19 pandemic the chief data officers demonstrated that navigating the changing situation is important. Businesses need to adapt and innovate in order to continue maintaining profits and survive. Laying out a roadmap is necessity during any disruptions in the business world as the environment changes. The trend is to