Todd Foley: Hello, and welcome to the CDO Magazine interview series. I’m Todd Foley, CDO and CISO with Lydonia. Today, I have the pleasure of talking with Karima Zahrir, Director of Data Analytics and AI at Louisiana Pacific Corporation. Karima, thank you for taking the time to talk to us today.
Karima Zahrir: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Todd Foley: Karima, could you provide a brief overview of your current role at Louisiana Pacific and highlight some of your background and experience in the field of data and analytics?
Karima Zahrir: Yeah, actually, I am the Director of Data and Analytics, as well as AI, here at Louisiana Pacific. I’ve been here for just a little over a year. I lead the data engineering, BI, data science, and AI teams. I’m responsible for executing the data strategy as well as implementing AI solutions through cross-team collaboration. I bring 20-plus years of data and analytics experience and have expertise across global and cross-industry roles, including my previous positions at Deloitte and Bridgestone. With this experience, I have the tools to lead data transformation efforts within Louisiana Pacific.
Todd Foley: It’s good to see that you have data analytics and AI together, as they’re closely linked. How has the emergence of Gen AI changed the role of data and analytics within Louisiana Pacific? I know you’ve been there for about a year during a relatively tumultuous time for Gen AI. What critical decisions has it compelled your data analytics approach and team model to make?
Karima Zahrir: Great question. I have to say, the emergence of Gen AI has definitely influenced the role of data analytics. We’ve had overwhelmingly positive feedback from our business users who want to embrace it as soon as possible. However, we’re also cognizant of the risks and security challenges it brings. That prompted us to start working on an AI Governance Board with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. This also pushed us to take a step back and review, as well as solidify, our data governance framework. I’m pleased to share that we have a few use cases in progress, but we want to ensure we implement them responsibly.
Todd Foley: That’s fantastic, but I imagine it brings a lot of challenges—especially with rapid technological advancements and applying them to business use cases. How has the rapid rate of change impacted how your teams organize and retrieve actionable information?
Karima Zahrir: Well, I have to say, organized chaos is acceptable if it is well-documented and understood. However, pure chaos is very challenging, as you mentioned. With new technologies, we constantly encounter new data sources, which bring a whole new set of challenges in terms of data quality, security, compliance, and integrity. We have to continuously refine our data governance frameworks to address these challenges.
Another factor is the number of new tools available to collect and analyze data for insights. Training is critical in this regard. We are ensuring that our team stays up to date with the latest technologies and that our business users can effectively utilize these tools. We are focusing on training from both an IT and business perspective, which I believe will help us achieve our goals at Louisiana Pacific.
Todd Foley: Karima, can you tell me a little more about the business enablement training you’re doing?
Karima Zahrir: Sure. This year, we launched a great initiative called the Data Citizen Program. Given the overwhelming demand for AI, we asked leaders across different business functions to identify their most tech-savvy employees. We then worked with them to develop a six-month program that combined technical skills training with leadership development.
At the three-month mark, participants presented use cases, and we just wrapped up the program last month. Through this initiative, five use cases—ones we would not have been able to complete on our own—were successfully developed and are now benefiting the business. A couple of these use cases were selected for presentation to different business units for further deployment.
It has been a great experience. I truly believe that embedding my team within the business fosters data and analytics integration, allowing it to become an essential part of the business strategy.
Todd Foley: That’s fantastic. I know a lot of people struggle with that, so your success is impressive. Ensuring clear, data-driven business decisions is critical, but complexity can sometimes get in the way. Are there other things you’re doing to simplify data-driven decision-making and reduce time to data?
Karima Zahrir: Well, with so many different new technologies, it can be really confusing and overwhelming to choose which tool to use. Within LPE, what we try to do is work together to make sure that we have a clear enterprise solution that we’re working towards. We look at the Magic Quadrant within Gartner to ensure that the tools we are going to deploy are viable, solid from a security perspective, and compatible with our current and existing ERP systems. That’s very important to us.
We obviously can’t do all of it alone, so our SIs and partners have been very helpful in this area as well, working with us to make sure that we are moving toward a simple—though not necessarily easy—enterprise that can successfully run LP’s business.
Todd Foley: I’m sure your partners will appreciate you saying that. I think you mentioned that you’re working towards a simpler enterprise solution. Do you have an architecture or transformational initiative in place around data architecture?
Karima Zahrir: That is exactly what we’re doing. We’re partnering with, as I mentioned, our SI and vendor, and we are actually in the middle of putting together an entire plan for the architecture overhaul. That’s a wonderful initiative that I’m very happy about, and our vendors and SIs are collaborating with us so we can expand our footprint in data and analytics and establish a strong foundation for AI as we grow in this field.
Todd Foley: It sounds like you’re seeing something we’re also seeing across the industry—the inflection point in the build-versus-buy discussion. With the sophistication of commercially available technologies, there’s now an opportunity to minimize some of the lift in day-to-day data operations and address integration challenges as you describe them.
Karima Zahrir: A hundred percent yes.
Todd Foley: Thank you, Karima, for joining us today. For those listening, please visit cdomagazine.tech for additional interviews. Thank you.
Karima Zahrir: Thank you.
