Latest news with #dataGovernance
National Post
28-07-2025
- Business
- National Post
Industry Veteran Oran Sears Joins iCONECT to Drive Strategic Product Innovation
Article content WASHINGTON & LONDON, Ontario — iCONECT, a rising force in public sector compliance and data governance technology, today announced the appointment of Oran Sears as its product leader for iCONECT's Public Sector Division. A recognized thought leader in eDiscovery, data breach response, regulated data systems, and mission-critical product innovation, Sears brings deep cross-sector experience that will strengthen iCONECT's leadership team. His skill set will also help supercharge product innovation in the public sector, law firms, legal service providers, and corporations. Article content Article content Sears joins iCONECT following a standout tenure at Relativity, where he served on the company's Senior Leadership Team and accelerated the delivery, scalability, and reliability of mission-critical features relied upon by federal agencies, Fortune 100 legal teams, and Legal Service Providers. A member of EDRM's Advisory Board since 2021, he also contributed to the industry-defining EDRM Processing Guidelines, helping establish standards for data processing and protection in complex legal workflows. Article content Previously, as Co-Founder and CTO of Canopy, Sears built one of the industry's first platforms dedicated to data mining and document review in breach response. His innovations earned patents in multiple countries for data classification and compliance automation—technologies that continue to influence next-generation breach response solutions. Article content Earlier in his career, Sears drove product innovation at ZyLAB, a pioneer in legal information governance, and contributed to sensitive national security R&D at Ntrepid, applying machine learning and data visualization to complex intelligence and investigative challenges. His experience also includes work with key public sector entities, including the SEC, FTC, DOJ, and the Executive Office of the President. Article content At iCONECT, Sears will lead the design, development, and scaling of purpose-built solutions for public sector agencies navigating sensitive data, complex compliance mandates, and digital transformation. Beyond his role in the public sector as a member of the senior leadership team, he will play a key part in advancing iCONECT's overall product strategy and driving innovation. His cross-industry perspective and technical leadership will help shape a unified platform experience that delivers greater scalability, resilience, and performance across all markets iCONECT serves. Article content 'Oran is a transformative addition to our leadership team,' said Rob Bush, CEO of iCONECT. 'He brings a rare combination of technical ingenuity, regulatory expertise, and a proven record of building resilient, scalable products for highly regulated environments. His insight into both government workflows and the broader eDiscovery landscape gives iCONECT a powerful edge. We're excited for his leadership as we accelerate our position as a trusted partner for helping agencies modernize how they govern and protect data.' Article content Article content 'I've spent my career building tools that protect data, foster trust, and accelerate decisions in high-stakes environments,' said Oran Sears. 'iCONECT's vision for the public sector aligns perfectly with that mission—and I'm excited to help shape what's next.' Article content 'This is a major win—not just for iCONECT, but for our clients,' said Eric Dirks, Chief Revenue Officer of iCONECT. 'With Oran's track record in launching category-defining platforms, we'll accelerate innovation and deliver even greater strategic value for agencies and compliance-driven organizations seeking workflow-optimized solutions to control their data.' Article content About iCONECT Article content Article content Article content Article content Press Contact: Article content Eric Dirks Article content Article content Phone: Article content Article content
Yahoo
28-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Industry Veteran Oran Sears Joins iCONECT to Drive Strategic Product Innovation
WASHINGTON & LONDON, Ontario, July 28, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--iCONECT, a rising force in public sector compliance and data governance technology, today announced the appointment of Oran Sears as its product leader for iCONECT's Public Sector Division. A recognized thought leader in eDiscovery, data breach response, regulated data systems, and mission-critical product innovation, Sears brings deep cross-sector experience that will strengthen iCONECT's leadership team. His skill set will also help supercharge product innovation in the public sector, law firms, legal service providers, and corporations. Sears joins iCONECT following a standout tenure at Relativity, where he served on the company's Senior Leadership Team and accelerated the delivery, scalability, and reliability of mission-critical features relied upon by federal agencies, Fortune 100 legal teams, and Legal Service Providers. A member of EDRM's Advisory Board since 2021, he also contributed to the industry-defining EDRM Processing Guidelines, helping establish standards for data processing and protection in complex legal workflows. Previously, as Co-Founder and CTO of Canopy, Sears built one of the industry's first platforms dedicated to data mining and document review in breach response. His innovations earned patents in multiple countries for data classification and compliance automation—technologies that continue to influence next-generation breach response solutions. Earlier in his career, Sears drove product innovation at ZyLAB, a pioneer in legal information governance, and contributed to sensitive national security R&D at Ntrepid, applying machine learning and data visualization to complex intelligence and investigative challenges. His experience also includes work with key public sector entities, including the SEC, FTC, DOJ, and the Executive Office of the President. At iCONECT, Sears will lead the design, development, and scaling of purpose-built solutions for public sector agencies navigating sensitive data, complex compliance mandates, and digital transformation. Beyond his role in the public sector as a member of the senior leadership team, he will play a key part in advancing iCONECT's overall product strategy and driving innovation. His cross-industry perspective and technical leadership will help shape a unified platform experience that delivers greater scalability, resilience, and performance across all markets iCONECT serves. "Oran is a transformative addition to our leadership team," said Rob Bush, CEO of iCONECT. "He brings a rare combination of technical ingenuity, regulatory expertise, and a proven record of building resilient, scalable products for highly regulated environments. His insight into both government workflows and the broader eDiscovery landscape gives iCONECT a powerful edge. We're excited for his leadership as we accelerate our position as a trusted partner for helping agencies modernize how they govern and protect data." "I've spent my career building tools that protect data, foster trust, and accelerate decisions in high-stakes environments," said Oran Sears. "iCONECT's vision for the public sector aligns perfectly with that mission—and I'm excited to help shape what's next." "This is a major win—not just for iCONECT, but for our clients," said Eric Dirks, Chief Revenue Officer of iCONECT. "With Oran's track record in launching category-defining platforms, we'll accelerate innovation and deliver even greater strategic value for agencies and compliance-driven organizations seeking workflow-optimized solutions to control their data." About iCONECT iCONECT delivers secure, modern software solutions designed to meet the unique demands of the legal industry and the public sector. With a focus on compliance, workflow optimization, and citizen-centered technology, iCONECT empowers legal and government teams to move faster, act smarter, and lead with confidence. For more information, visit View source version on Contacts Press Contact: Eric DirksPhone: 855-915-8888Email: edirks@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Tahawul Tech
25-07-2025
- Business
- Tahawul Tech
Future is 'Agentic' and already unfolding
Let me take you on a journey, not into some far-off sci-fi future, but into a tomorrow that's just around the corner. Imagine walking into your workplace and finding that some of your 'colleagues' are no longer human. They're not robots in the traditional sense, but autonomous software agents trained on vast datasets, equipped with decision-making power, and capable of performing economic, civic, and operational tasks at scale. These agents write policies, monitor supply chains, process health records, generate news, and even govern our digital interactions. This isn't a scene from a movie. A tectonic shift is heading our way, one that will transform how we work, how governments function, and even how communities operate. In this world, digital public infrastructure (DPI) will not be a convenience. It will be a lifeline. This shift is already progressing in the heart of the Middle East. Ambitious projects like NEOM in Saudi Arabia are exploring how agentic AI can be woven into the fabric of urban life. They aim to build an ecosystem of autonomous agents that redefines how cities are developed and managed. Sovereignty in the Age of Agents We like to say, 'Everyone has data.' But the real question is: Where is it? Who controls it? Who governs access to it? In a world run by agents, these are not purely technical questions but ones of power, accountability, and autonomy. A sovereign nation that cannot locate, trust, or manage its data risks losing control.. A government that cannot verify what its own agents have learned, or with whom they are communicating with, is no longer governing. To survive and thrive in this new ecosystem, DPI must evolve into Digital Shoring: a foundation for sovereign, trusted, and open environments built on four pillars: Open Data – depends on trust. It requires clear data lineage, verified provenance, and accountable governance. Knowing where your data came from and where it's going is essential for any system that relies on it.. Open Source Software – because critical infrastructure built on black boxes is neither secure nor sovereign. Open Standards – because without shared protocols, agents can't cooperate, institutions can't interoperate, and governments can't govern. Open Skills – because the capacity to read a balance sheet, or audit a neural net, shouldn't belong to a privileged few. This is the backbone of an agentic society that is fair, sovereign, and resilient. Agentic Intelligence: More Than Just Fancy Tools Let's talk about what agents actually are – and what they aren't. Imagine I hand a company's financial statement to two readers: a junior analyst and a seasoned economist. Both might understand the numbers, but only one can extract strategic insight. Similarly, agents can read, analyze, and reason. But the quality of their actions depends entirely on the skills they are equipped with. These skills can be trained, acquired, or, most importantly, shared. In public sector contexts, this presents an extraordinary opportunity. Why should every institution reinvent the same agent? Why can't the skills of a fraud detection agent used in one department be transferred, securely and ethically, to another? Just like people share their expertise, we need infrastructure for sharing agentic capabilities across digital institutions. This is where organizations like the UN can help, by setting the standards and helping everyone through the lens of the Global Digital Compact initiative. From 'Sovereign Cloud' to 'Sovereign AI Platforms' Right now, a lot of talk is around keeping data inside national borders. But in the world of agents, that is just not enough. What really matters is where and how models are trained, how they are managed, and how we keep them in check. We need Sovereign AI Platforms – akin to the way HR departments manage employees: verifying credentials, ensuring alignment, monitoring performance, and enabling collaboration. Companies such as Cloudera, are developing the scaffolding for such platforms: secure hybrid AI environments, open-source data pipelines, governance-first orchestration layers, and modular LLM serving infrastructure that respects national compliance frameworks. But no company can do this alone. This is a global mission. Open by Design. Governed by Default Governments around the world are already realising that private AI cannot be built on public cloud monopolies. Digital identity and agent oversight need to be open and transparent, not hidden, ad hoc, or opaque. So the future must be open by design – in code, in data, in protocols, and being governed by default. From Digital IDs that authenticate not only humans, but also agents and their behavior, to full knowledge graphs that maintain shared institutional knowledge across systems, together with audit trails that document every decision, every inference, every prompt. This goes beyond technology. It involves creating a new kind of digital society that is designed to empower states, safeguard citizens, and align intelligence with democratic values. The Path Forward This transformation will not be easy. It will require bold policy, sustained investment, cross-border cooperation, and, above all, technical leadership grounded in values. But make no mistake, digital cooperation is not optional. It is the condition for sovereignty in an agentic world. Without it, we are left with silos, vendor lock-in, and algorithmic drift. With it, we build a future where intelligence, human or machine, serves the public good. So let's move beyond the buzzwords. Let's build platforms, protocols, and public goods that are open, modular, and sovereign. Let's treat agents not just as tools, but as members of a digital society in need of governance, trust, and cooperation. And maybe, when we look back at today from the vantage point of tomorrow, we'll remember this moment not as a crisis, but as the moment we chose to govern the future together. This opinion piece is authored by Sergio Gago Huerta, CTO at Cloudera.
Globe and Mail
09-07-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Alation Named a Leader in 2025 Data Governance Solutions Report by Independent Global Research Firm
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alation Inc., the data intelligence company, today announced it has been named a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Data Governance Solutions, Q3 2025 report. The research identifies, analyzes, and scores the 13 top vendors offering products with data governance capabilities. According to the report, 'Alation is ideal for enterprises embracing federated governance and seeking an agentic, AI-augmented platform to embed intelligence into everyday workflows.' 'In a world where every business process is being redesigned with agentic AI, data governance isn't an option. At Alation, we reimagined governance by leveraging agents to both automate the work and to align governance to outcomes,' said Satyen Sangani, CEO and co-founder of Alation. 'For us, this recognition as a Leader—and receiving the highest score in the strategy category—validates our vision. While others speculate about the future of AI, we're delivering it: empowering over 600 organizations, including 40% of the Fortune 100, to automate governance, accelerate insight, and build responsibly with AI at the core. With the Alation Platform, data teams become builders, embedding governance into business workflows to make AI not just possible, but safe, precise, and reliable.' Alation enables businesses to efficiently operationalize data products at scale, changing data management from a fragmented and ad hoc process into a systematic and repeatable model. It offers a centralized, governed platform where business users, applications, and AI systems can easily discover and utilize reliable, high-value data products to speed up business insights. The report echoes the importance of data products for organizations, 'Looking forward, as organizations shift from managing data to monetizing it, the most advanced solutions are enabling governed, reusable data products to flow through dynamic marketplaces — fueling AI models, accelerating insights, and unlocking new value streams across the business.' Alation's Agentic Platform leverages agents to automate time-consuming and manual data management processes, including applying data governance policies. As noted in the report, 'Alation's differentiated strategy centers on shifting governance from passive documentation to intelligent, agentic workflows. Its bold vision is to organically embed governance into daily workflows and align metadata with business outcomes.' The report also notes that the company's 'key differentiator is its data marketplace and product builder modules, designed to operationalize governance and accelerate data-to-value workflows.' The company's Data Products Marketplace ensures all organizations can easily operationalize their data assets to deliver business impact effectively. It also serves as a centralized exchange where business users and data teams can quickly find, understand, and access trusted data products. 'Customers highlight Alation's intuitive UX, flexible integration, and superior collaboration features as standout strengths that help drive broad adoption across business and technical teams,' the Forrester report said in its research. All vendors were evaluated across 28 criteria. Alation received the highest score in the strategy category with the highest scores possible in the vision, roadmap, adoption, and community criteria. In the current offering category, Alation received the highest scores possible in the data discovery, data catalog, data collaboration, lineage analysis and management, data valuation, data governance management, data sharing, and commercialization criteria. Learn More: Access the full report. Register for our webinar, The Future of Data Governance, with guest speaker Raluca Alexandru, Lead Analyst at Forrester Research, and GT Volpe, Senior Director of Product Management at Alation, on August 6, 2025, at 8 a.m. PT / 11 a.m. ET, which will include a discussion about the report findings. Read the blog, Alation Named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Data Governance Solutions, Q3 2025. Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. For more information, read about Forrester's objectivity here. About Alation Alation is the data intelligence company. More than 600 global enterprises — including 40% of the Fortune 100 — rely on Alation to realize value from their data and AI initiatives. Customers such as Cisco, DocuSign, Nasdaq, Pfizer, and Samsung trust Alation's platform for self-service analytics, cloud transformation, data governance, and AI-ready data, fostering data-driven innovation at scale. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, Alation has been recognized five times by Inc. Magazine as one of the Best Workplaces. To learn more, visit
BBC News
09-07-2025
- BBC News
South Ayrshire Council email revealed free school meal applicants
South Ayrshire Council has apologised after sending out an email revealing the identities of people applying for free school meals and clothing email, which included names and email addresses, was sent to hundreds of recipients last Wednesday before it was recalled a short time council said it was investigating the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) confirmed it had now received a report of a data breach. It is possible to apply for free school meals or clothing grants if a parent or guardian receives qualifying benefits. This information is confidential and South Ayrshire Council uses a cashless system in schools which anonymises children who receive free school meals. After the email was sent out last Wednesday, the council's benefits and revenues team issued an apology the following day. The team confirmed the previous message was a "genuine email from the council".It read: "Regrettably, due to an administrative error, the email was issued to multiple email addresses rather than to you individually. Please accept my sincere apologies for this error."I have informed the council's data governance team that a data breach has occurred, and this will be investigated by them."I can confirm your application has been approved however please now delete the original email from your email account."A South Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: "We are aware of a potential data breach and are taking the appropriate action. "We have been in contact with those affected. The matter was reported to the ICO."A spokesperson for the ICO said it was assessing the information provided in the report. Additional reporting by local democracy journalist Kevin Dyson.
