Million dollar job offer

Informatica Australia managing director Laurie Newman is so sure the position of Chief Data Officer will be commonplace in five years, he's willing to bet you a million dollars.

The data integration vendor met with media last week to discuss market trends. Among them, the importance of data control and governance.

Newman believes with data management such a pressing issue for today's businesses, more and more of them will appoint an owner, or custodian, of data.

"I'll bet you a million dollars that in five years time most of the large 200 companies in Australia will have a CDO, they'll have a Chief Data Officer.

"This is the trend which is coming out now, that we need to preserve our assets, and the assets is information.

He cited the case of Centrelink which sacked dozens of workers last year after they inappropriately accessed client data. The result was a wide-ranging review of data control, access, security levels etc.

This was not the domain of the CIO, according to Newman, as the "owner of data" role at the moment was fought out between business units for different purposes.

"The CIO's not going to wake up one morning and say 'I'll appoint myself as the owner of data because it'll drive my marketing spend better.' It doesn't happen that way."

If you have a lazy million lying around, do you care to have a wager with Laurie? E-mail me at tips@zdnet.com.au or talkback below.