Sallie Mae’s Barbara Deemer Selected as the 2011 Data Steward of the Year

Release date: 10/11/2011

On International Data Stewards Day, Deemer is honored by experts and peers with a prestigious “Stewie” award.

Cary, N.C. (October 11, 2011) — On the first annual Data Stewards Day, DataFlux, a leader in data management solutions, is pleased to announce that Barbara Deemer, the chief data steward for Sallie Mae, has been honored as the inaugural “Data Steward of the Year.” Nicknamed the “Stewie,” the award was created to honor a data steward who works hard and loves the job; someone who deftly works with both the business and IT sides of an organization; and someone who has saved the day by enabling accurate data-driven decisions – maybe more than once.

Called a “one-woman data powerhouse” in her nomination, Deemer’s colleagues cited a number of professional accomplishments, from helping establish Sallie Mae’s formal data quality program to bridging the data gap between the finance and credit departments. Beyond these critical endeavors, Deemer has earned the admiration of many at Sallie Mae for a combination of key qualities, including:

• Extensive domain expertise – Deemer was labeled “a data governance champion” who has “no equal…when it comes to understanding the financial business processes in our company.”
• Institutional memory – “Whether the question is about something last year or 10 years ago, Barb remembers the details.”
• Versatility – “She is the Bo Jackson of data stewards at Sallie Mae.”
• Personal commitment – “She brings a professional and up-beat attitude that is tough to rival.”

“On a day in which we honor all the experts who manage data, we are very pleased to recognize Barb Deemer as the 2011 Data Steward of the Year,” said Tony Fisher, president and CEO of DataFlux. “It is apparent that her dedication to her craft and her ability to bridge IT and business have made a tremendous difference at Sallie Mae.”

Deemer was chosen from a strong pool of nominees by a panel of judges from the Data Roundtable, a group of data governance, master data management (MDM), data integration and data quality experts, including David Loshin, Joyce Norris-Montanari, Jim Harris, Dylan Jones and Rich Murnane. Nominees were judged on four key criteria: the complexity of projects or programs, organizational visibility, dedication to data stewardship principles and the success/ROI of programs under their leadership.

Jim Harris, president of Obsessive-Compulsive Data Quality said, “Barbara Deemer is a shining example of the powerfully positive business impacts that are possible when a dedicated data stewardship function is demonstrably proven to be foundational to an organization’s success.”

About International Data Stewards Day
International Data Stewards Day (celebrated on the extremely binary 10/11/11) is dedicated to the data management leaders who have a major impact on their companies but don’t get enough recognition for the work they do. The holiday seeks to educate the public on the critical role of data stewards – loosely defined as an individual who knows the business and technology needs of an organization while serving as the central point of communication across different lines of business – while celebrating those professionals who fulfill it.

The complete list of finalists can be found at www.datastewardsday.com.  

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About DataFlux
DataFlux enables business agility and IT efficiency by providing innovative data management technology and services that transform data into a strategic asset. A wholly owned subsidiary of SAS (www.sas.com), DataFlux helps organizations manage critical aspects of data through unified technologies and expertise that provide the benefits of data quality, data integration and master data management (MDM). To learn more visit www.dataflux.com.