Top 22 Data Influencers to Follow in 2024

The data space is rapidly changing and it’s hard to keep track. From data analytics, machine learning and AI architecture to data mesh, there are some leading experts who can help you stay on top of all the latest trends – all you need to do is follow them.

Here are our picks for the top 22 data experts you should be following in 2024 (from A to Z)

1. Barr Moses

Barr Moses is the CEO and co-founder of Monte Carlo, a data reliability company and creator of the industry’s first Data Observability platform. She is the co-author of Data Quality Fundamentals, and a leading voice in the data space – advocating for data quality and reliability. Having coined the term “data downtime” which refers to periods of time when your data is partial, erroneous, missing or inaccurate, 

Barr believes data is our new software and we should treat our data downtime the same way as our app downtime to eliminate firefighting from the equation. You can catch Barr on Twitter and her top predictions for 2023, right here.

2. Ben Rogojan

Ben Rogojan, who goes by the alias of Seattle Data Guy, is one of the most popular creators in the data space today. Up to date, he’s garnered over 44K LinkedIn followers and almost 50K subscribers on his YouTube channel. The data engineering solutions architect has extensive expertise in data architecture and statistics. 

The ex-Meta data engineer turned consultant now helps companies from healthcare to SaaS, develop simple end-to-end data solutions that are easy to maintain. Whether he’s sharing the latest tips and tricks on how to break into data engineering or his take on trends shaping the industry, you can see everything he’s up to on Medium, Twitter or subscribe to his newsletter here.

3. Benn Stancil

Benn Stancil is a seasoned data analyst, specializing in collaborative business intelligence and interactive data science. He is the co-founder and chief analytics officer at Mode, a company building collaborative tools for data scientists and analysts. In his day-to-day he works on innovative ways for data teams to explore, visualize, analyze and share data using a powerful end-to-end workflow.

The ex-Microsoft senior analyst believes in doing impactful, strong analysis and often sparks industry-wide discussions around new and under-explored topics. He fueled a lengthy debate this past year about the fundamental missing piece of the modern data stack – the metrics layer. You can find him openly sharing his gratitude and humility on a wide range of topics on Substack or Twitter. 

4. Bruno Aziza

Bruno is a renowned mover and shaker in the big data analytics world. The tech entrepreneur and author is a leadership enabler of intelligent execution – with a proven track record of scaling businesses and turning them into global leaders. For the past decade he has led and managed teams, shipping over 10 products in world-class companies like Microsoft, Oracle, and most recently Google, as head of data and analytics at Google Cloud.

You can grab a weekly dose of the biggest stories in AI, Data and Analytics on Bruno’s YouTube channel, or keep tabs on breaking news and trends on his Medium or Twitter account.

5. Cassie Kozyrkov

Cassie is a data science thought leader, tech evangelist, innovator and creator. She founded Decision Intelligence Engineering at Google, where she currently serves as Chief Data Scientist. Having trained over 20K Googlers in machine learning, decision-making and statistics, she’s become a top go-to advisor for organizations seeking to become more AI and data-driven.

You can catch her popular series Making Friends with Machine Learning here or dishing out her opinions and inspiring insights on Twitter or Medium.

6. Chad Sanderson

The former journalist, self-taught statistician, seasoned CRO, data and product leader is a prolific data contracts advocate, writer and speaker. The ex-Microsoft, ex-Subway and ex-Convoy data expert believes that building a production-grade data warehouse and breaking the silo between data producers and consumers all begins with addressing data contracts. Here’s a snapshot of his top predictions for the year ahead:

He recently founded Data Quality, a popular community centered around data contracts, architecture, modeling, monitoring, CI/CD and more. You can find his stance on all these topics and more on Substack.

7. Chris Tabb

Chris is a prolific data technical author at Apress and O’Reilly. The seasoned veteran has over 30 years of experience in data analytics and BI space. Chris is the co-founder and chief commercial officer at LEIT, a data analytics consultancy company that equips businesses with what they need at the right time to achieve maximum business value with data.

The highly witty influencer’s tweets and #meandatastreets posts are centered around delivering business value and oftentimes directed to C-suite and those in steering the wheel demanding ROI from data projects. An avid meetup organizer and speaker, you can keep up with everything he’s up to on Twitter.

8. Cindi Howson

Cindi is a disruptor of all things data, BI and analytics, specializing in providing the right analytics for the right use case. The ThoughtSpot chief data strategy officer and host of The Data Chief Podcast is a prolific influencer in the data world. 

With a career spanning over two decades, prior to ThoughtSpot, Cindi served as VP Data and Analytics at Gartner and founded BI Scorecard®. She is also the author of multiple books including Successful Business Intelligence: Unlock the Value of BI & Big Data and SAP BusinessObjectsBI 4.0: The Complete Reference. She’s got lots of helpful information to share on Twitter

9. Daliana Liu

With over 100K LinkedIn followers, Daliana has become a household name in the data science world. When she’s not busy at her job as senior data scientist at Predibase, an enterprise declarative machine learning platform, she hosts the The Data Scientist Show and writes about how to grow a successful career in data science. 

You can find all the latest tips and tricks on her Twitter feed and newsletter. 

10. Dave Langer

“I teach the world the 20% of analytics that drives 80% of the ROI.”

Who wouldn’t want to learn that? Dave is a data literacy powerhouse with a mission to equip anyone, anywhere with valuable data analytics skills, that he believes will become as essential as Microsoft skills in the very near future as every organization becomes more data-driven. 

Having helped hundreds of BI and analytics pros and thousands of newbies in the field, the hands-on trainer and consultant is definitely one to watch. Be sure to catch his tutorials or follow him on Twitter – you’re sure to learn a lot. 

11. Eric Kavanagh

Eric is a media legend and one of the leaders in the intersection between data analytics, information economy, fighting for open data advocacy. CEO at The Bloor Group, he helped to pioneer a transparent, New Media approach to traditional IT Analysis. The former UN open data advocate and former SXSW advisor also helped inspire the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.

Follow him on Twitter or learn more about the information economy and data insights on https://dmradio.biz/.

12. Greq Coquillo

Leading a team of data scientists and engineers driving AI projects at Amazon – Greg is an AI mastermind. The Amazon technology manager, startup investor, CharlieDAO advisor, former stream manager at Avery Dennison and former product manager at Lonza, Greg is breaking the grounds.

He was named top LinkedIn voice in 2021 for Tech and Innovation and in 2020 for Data Science and AI for his efforts on how to “use data science as a business strategy”. The AI-trend-setter and machine learning observability enthusiast shares technical tips, Amazon’s latest developments in AI and his expertise from on his Twitter.

13. Jessica Talisman

How do you wrangle data to understand its true state? How do you classify and create structure in data? Check out Senior Taxonomist, Ontologist and Information Architect, Jessica Talisman’s recent chat with Joe Reis and Matt Housley plus Loris Marini to find out. 

Jessica is an information scientist extraordinaire. Her name’s become synonymous with all things taxonomy and ontology. Her methodology of using parent-child relationship between entities to identify and make sense of dirty or messy data is widely adopted by leading experts. Back in the late 90s she controlled information science for the Steven Spielberg foundation, cataloging 11 years of testimonial footage of Holocaust survivors from the film Schindler’s List. Fast forward three decades later, and she’s continuing to innovate and build solid information frameworks with extensibility. Follow her on Twitter.

14. Joe Reis

The CEO of Ternary Data is a self-proclaimed “recovering data scientist” and “data nerd”.  Joe’s accomplishments are nothing short of amazing. He co-wrote the best-selling book Fundamentals of Data Engineering, hosts the Monday Morning Data Chat and The Data Nerd Herd and teaches at the University of Utah. 

When he’s not busy unpacking data engineering principles, interviewing the brightest minds in data or teaching, he runs meetups, like The Utah Data Engineering Meetup and SLC Python. Keep up with everything he’s up to on Substack and get a taste of his podcast here 👇

15. Jordan Goldmeier

An internationally recognized data science leader, entrepreneur, author and speaker, the nine-time Excel MVP awardee, Jordan helps advise the direction of Microsoft product teams. His books include Advanced Excel Essentials and Dashboards for Excel, Becoming a Data Head and The Budgeting System for Solopreneurs. 

Having worked on projects for the UN, World Bank and Habitat for Humanity, his impressive roster of clients include NATO, the Pentagon, and H&M. He famously saved the US Air Force a whopping $60M using Excel. On a mission to empower data experts to scale their businesses and retain their talent without overkill or burnout amid the economic recession, Jordan is a force to be reckoned with. Find him sharing killer insights on Excel TV or his blog

16. Lauren Balik

Lauren is a seasoned data leader, advisor, investor and owner of Upright Analytics, a consultancy firm that enables companies to become more data-driven. The data wrangler breaks and drills down into the latest trends and topics like data catalogs, social data layers and the modern data stack to unravel abstractions and understand how and whether tool functionalities serve data teams or land them in a deep black hole. 

As a consultant bringing in vendors for clients, she’s passionate about uncovering the price of vendor lock-in and its impact on Total Cost of Ownership. You can find her candid take on on point solutions, fragmented processes and forecast for 2023 on Medium. Here’s a glimpse of one New Year prediction we just couldn’t resist sharing “consolidated platforms like Keboola, Nexla, Rivery, Ascend.io and similar will continue to rise.”

17. Loris Marini

A Ph.D in Quantum Photonics, with years of experience as a data engineer combine to make Loris one of the most exciting data influencers on our list. On a mission to bridge the gap between data and business literacy, The Mars operations engineer founded people-centric consultancy, Data Foundations to help businesses manage their data assets by aligning people, culture, and technology. Loris is a firm believer that without management, data is a liability.

You can tune into his hotly tipped podcast, Discovering Data to learn from the best in the biz, on what it takes to turn data into outcomes through governance, economics, architecture, human behavior, design, change management, and more. 

18. Mark Freeman II

In his own words, “Mark is a community health advocate turned data scientist interested in the intersection of social impact, business and technology. His life’s mission is to improve the well-being of as many people as possible through data—especially among those marginalized.”

The former Stanford graduate, ex-Humu senior data engineer, CharlieDAO advisor, founded On the Mark Data – offering bespoke services during the Covid-19 pandemic to help brands connect with data pros through captivating content. The charismatic and popular social influencer is known for his scroll-stopping memes and LinkedIn posts, like this one which got over 3,500 likes! Insane. Sign up to this newsletter and never miss a beat.

19. Megan Lieu

Megan is a former analytics and strategy associate at Ankura and EY. She currently serves as data scientist at Narrator and runs a LinkedIn Learning course on how to Choose the Right Tool for Your Data: Python, R, or SQL. She loves making sense of messy data and is building her career and skills in public, alongside her 50K+ LinkedIn followers.

You can follow her programming, querying, data management and visualization journey on LinkedIn and get the inside scoop on what data science looks like today, what it takes to succeed, and how to make posts go viral. 

20. Mehdi Ouazza

Mehdi is a data engineer pro, leading social influencer, blogger, content creator and consultant. The natural born entertainer and entrepreneur puts the fun into data, and doesn’t shy away from sharing his groove on his big data journey.

You can follow him on YouTube, Medium and Twitter to learn lessons and get career tips on all things data pipelines, modeling, orchestration, infrastructure, analytics reporting and machine learning. 

21. Sundas Khalid

High-school dropout turned data science and analytics leader Sundas is all about breaking stereotypes and advocating for diversity in the workplace. She currently leads search engine analytics at Google, and previously worked at Amazon as a self-taught data scientist.

She has been featured in several publications and has won multiple awards including the Women Empowerment Award in 2019 for her contributions towards building an empowered supportive community for women in tech.

Sundas provides a wealth of expertise on data science and analytics, career growth, financial literacy and more on her YouTube channel and Medium blog.

22. Zhamak Dehghani

Data Mesh Founder, Zhamak Dehghani has become a household name in the data world. She took the whole industry by storm, sparking countless conversations on LinkedIn, Substack, Medium, YouTube and Twitter. Decentralizing data and delivering data as a product to different teams was all the rage this year and continues to strike a chord with thought leaders and data practitioners alike.

CEO, tech advisory board member, author, speaker, ex-Thoughtworks Director of Emerging Technologies, Zhamak’s resume is endless. With over 20 years of experience serving as a technologist, she is revolutionizing our perceptions on decentralized tech solutions and distributed systems and architecture.

We can’t wait to see what the author of Architecture the Hard Parts and Data Mesh comes up with next. We’ll be watching her. What about you? Follow her on Twitter

These top data experts can alert you to the most important news, trends, and insights in the data world. We hope you find this list helpful. Just pick who you want to follow and you’ll see how easy it is to keep up to date with any critical development as it unfolds.

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