Lydia Ray

Lydia RayJul 27, 2026

I haven't been posting for a while. Not because I burned out. Because I wanted to look wider. I was still here... Scrolling, reading, watching what everyone was building. I just stopped adding to the noise for a bit. Intentionally. The past year has been a lot. Jumping between roles with no real break in between, speaking engagements, building in public. All good things. But when I'm moving fast, my view narrows. I see what's next, not what's around me. So I stepped back. I just… stopped pressing publish. Part of that break included going home to Indonesia. Two weeks in Bali in June. Caught up with family and friends I hadn't seen in too long. Watched the sun rise behind Mount Agung with dry rice fields stretching out below. Sat at a beach club doing absolutely nothing productive and felt zero guilt about it. Spent an afternoon in a batik workshop, painting wax patterns by hand with a level of patience I didn't know I had. 🇮🇩 🏖️ 🌊 👙 Then I came back over a month ago. And I still didn't post. The quiet was doing something useful. Without the pressure of turning every thought into content, I started noticing things differently. It reminded me why I fell in love with data in the first place. The craft of it. The patience it takes to build something that actually holds up. Foundations that don't fall apart six months later. I won't pretend I came back with some perfect clarity. But the view is definitely wider now. 😅 I've also been joining CDO Summer School by Caroline Carruthers and Peter Jackson and it's been one of the most valuable things I've done during this quiet stretch. Hearing CDO/CDAIO/data leaders share what's actually happening in their organisations, not the polished conference version, but the real stuff. It's sharpening how I think about helping my customers build foundations that last. I'll be sharing my notes from it soon. Anyway. I'm back. Wider lens, a couple of stages to stand on this September (London and New York, more on that soon)... 👀 🤙 Good to be here again. 🫶 😎

Lydia RaySep 9, 2026

Finished up Data Leaders Summer School by Carruthers and Jackson last week, and managed to get a couple of snaps towards the end of graduation night. 😉 For me personally, this course was the exact recalibration I needed. When you've been in data for years, it's easy to get caught up in pure technical architecture. But watching how fast the role of data and AI leaders is evolving, especially with board pressure at an all-time high, the hardest part is rarely picking a tool. It's getting the foundation right while still showing value before patience runs out. In my role working with data leaders, it's common in tech to walk into a room, rattle off architecture diagrams, demo, and look smart in a meeting. These past 10 weeks confirmed what I've always felt: the real work happens outside the meeting, in those candid conversations. Listening to what is actually slowing them down, helping them figure out where to start, and doing the boring groundwork so they can show real value quickly. I think this is what it takes to be a strategic technology partner. Spending time with this cohort gave me space to step back, listen, and truly see things from their shoes. Huge thanks to Caroline Carruthers, Peter Jackson and the whole team behind the scene for building such a sharp global community and bringing everyone together. Proud to graduate alongside this group. 🫶 🫶🫶 P.S. I will share my notes so you can steal them later. ✌😌 #CDOSummerSchool #DataLeadership #DataStrategy #AI

Lydia RaySep 11, 2026

I'll be at Big Data LDN. Will you be there too? 🤨 If you are, come vibe with us at the Databricks booth! Why bother? Because… First of all, ☝😊 I'll be at the booth to chat and listen to your data and AI stories, challenges, rants, whatever you want to call it. We can brainstorm and walk through live Databricks demos to see how to actually solve them. Second, I've been getting into procurement data lately, and I find it interesting. IMHO, it's such an underrated win for every organization. Most teams pour all their energy into downstream sales and marketing, leaving procurement for later and stopping at a "great spend dashboard". But what if we can do more? Evolving from static charts to intelligent action takes real groundwork: clean data, unified business context, and reliable guardrails. I'll be breaking this down in my session: 🗓️ 24 sep | 13.00 BST 📍 Big Data LDN 🎙️ "Beyond the Spend Dashboard: The Evolution of Intelligent Procurement". I also highly recommend hanging around to attend the practical, no-nonsense sessions my colleagues will be presenting. We have Multi-agent systems in production, DQX, AI governance & guardrails, Serverless security & DR, Lakehouse architectures, and plenty more on the agenda. 👉 👉 👉 Carlos Rodrigues Sai Siddharth P. Gokul Pillai Oliver Gordon Manjul Singhal TL;DR: Register now! Link in the comment. And come by Databricks booth M80 to chat about data and AI, and catch the talks. 🫶 #BigDataLDN #Databricks #DataFoundations #Procurement #AI