Jovita Tam, data and AI advisor with a background in engineering, law, and finance, joined Yuliia and Dumke to challenge how organizations approach governance. Jovita argues that data governance is a way of thinking, not a tool you purchase, explaining why culture eats strategy and why most governance programs fail at the checkbox exercise.  Jovita shares her approach to helping executives understand that governance should be an enabler, not an obstacle, and why treating it as purely compliance or cost center misses the point entirely. Jovita's Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jovitatam/

Kasriel Kay, leading data democratization at Velotix, joined Yuliia and Dumke to challenge conventional wisdom about data governance and catalogs. Kasriel argues that data catalogs provide visibility but fail to deliver business value, comparing them to "buying JIRA and expecting agile practices." He advocates for shifting from restrictive data governance to data enablement through policy-based access control that considers user attributes, data sensitivity, and business context. Kasriel explains how AI-driven policy engines can learn from organizational behavior to automatically grant appropriate data access while maintaining compliance, ultimately reducing time-to-insight and unlocking missed business opportunities.

Jason Touleyrou, Data Engineering Manager at Corewell Health joined Yuliia to discuss why most organizations struggle with data governance. He argues that data teams should focus on building trust through flexible systems rather than rigid controls. Challenging traditional data quality approaches, Jason suggests starting with basic freshness checks and evolving governance gradually. Drawing from his experience across healthcare and marketing analytics, he shares practical strategies for implementing governance during migrations and measuring data team value beyond conventional metrics. Jason's linkedin page - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasontouleyrou/