Fractional Data Leadership · Madison, WI

Executive Data
Leadership on-demand

For companies whose data and AI aspirations have outgrown their internal leadership to deliver.

How This Works →

Rethinking the Executive Data Role

Rethinking the Executive Data Role

Ask Yourself

Most executive data roles feel like impossible unicorn hunts — part strategist, part architect, part hands-on engineer, all of it full-time. That was always a hard ask.

There's a different approach to acquire the expertise you need to build the capabilities necessary to succeed.

A full-time leader sees one company at a time. Fractional data leadership allows me to see what's working (and what isn't) across multiple organizations with different approaches, tools, teams, and stages of maturity. For companies navigating decisions they haven't faced before, that breadth of perspective is its own form of leverage.

Who I Work With

Who I Work With

By role

  • CEOs, CFOs, and COOs making data and AI decisions without a data executive in the room — or with one who isn't calibrated for the moment.
  • CIOs and CTOs who own data as part of a broader remit and want a strategic partner focused specifically on data and AI.
  • PE operating partners and investment teams assessing or accelerating data and AI maturity across portfolio companies.
  • Data teams who want an experienced peer to pressure-test direction and sharpen decisions.

By situation

  • Strategic transitions spanning ERP or CRM migrations, platform rearchitecture, post-acquisition integration, or new executive vision.
  • Underperforming investment absorbing real spend without producing the expected returns.
  • Pre-data-function companies making their first serious move on data and AI without defaulting to a premature full-time hire.
  • Leadership transitions navigating a change between data executives, or redefining what the role means.

How I Work

How I Work

Strategic Assessment

This is where most engagements with me begin.

Over two to three weeks, I examine your data and AI organization from the inside: where you're strong, where you're stuck, what the next move should be, and practically what it would take to make it happen.

You're not buying a generic slide deck. You get a clear prioritized set of actions, built specifically for your situation — concrete enough that your team can start executing with or without me.

Some clients take the assessment and run with it themselves. Others use it as the first step into a fractional engagement with me.

Fractional Data Leadership

I embed in your organization as your data executive — inside your org chart, working with your team, accountable to your outcomes.

Embedded leadership also means embedded capability-building. I coach your data and technical teams to use AI effectively — not as a tool they experiment with on the side, but as a core part of how they work. And I coach the whole team to think through decisions, not just execute on mine. The goal is a team that's materially stronger.

Engagements range from a few hours a week to half-time or more, depending on the moment. The intensity adjusts as your needs evolve.

What Makes This Different

What Makes This Different

You work with me directly.

There's no team behind this. When you engage Madison Data Advisory, you only engage with me — a data executive with over a decade of experience — not a senior partner who hands you off to someone junior in the end.

No vendor relationships.
No conflicts of interest.

I don't represent any platform, tool, or technology. My only incentive is your successful outcome.

An owner's stake in your outcome.

Most consultancies are structured to extend the engagement. Most full-time hires are structured to protect the role. I'm structured to make your data and AI function work — and to walk away when it does, or stay when it still needs me.

Let's Talk

If you have a data or AI challenge and want to think through whether fractional leadership makes sense for your situation, I'd like to hear from you about it.