Richard Y. Wang

Dr. Richard Y. Wang is the Founding Director and General Chair of the MIT Chief Data Officer and Information Quality (CDOIQ) Symposium, and his research on the effectiveness of Chief Data Officers (CDOs) has been used by organizations across the world to create CDO positions. He has served as Professor and Executive Director at the Institute for Chief Data Officers at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the Deputy CDO and Chief Data Quality Officer for the U.S. Army, and was the state of Arkansas’ first CDO. He holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he was a professor for nearly a decade.
 
Dr. Wang is widely known as the “Founder of Information Quality” for his work in establishing information quality as an accepted field. A pioneering proponent for the hiring of CDOs in major organizations, his research inspired the U.S. Congress to enact the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, which mandates all federal agencies appoint a CDO. He has also written several books on information quality including Journey to Data Quality (MIT Press, 2006), Information Quality: Advances in Management Information Systems (M.E. Sharpe, 2005) and Quality Information and Knowledge (Prentice Hall, 1999). 
 
For his outstanding contributions to his field, he’s received several accolades, including the 2005 DAMA International Lifetime Achievement Award, and the title of Honorary Professor by the Xi’An Jiao Tong University in China. Dr. Wang has also been recognized by the U.S. government for his work; he was given a certificate of appreciation from the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and a thank you letter from the Director of National Intelligence for his time with the Department of Defense.