Chief Data Officer · Munich, Germany
Dr. Oliver M.
Duschka
Building AI Governance
That Enables, Not Blocks.
AI & Data Governance · EU AI Act · FiDA · Stanford PhD
Current Focus
AI Governance
Building practical EU AI Act compliance: AI system registry, risk classification frameworks, and embedded governance workflows that enable responsible adoption rather than blocking it.
Data Governance
Enterprise-wide data ownership, stewardship frameworks, and the technical foundations of Versicherungskammer's Data Driven Transformation — Germany's largest public insurer.
Regulatory Intelligence
FiDA preparedness, active participation in industry working groups shaping German insurance AI standards, and translating evolving EU regulation into operational practice.
From regulation
to practice.
I lead AI and Data Governance at Versicherungskammer, Germany's largest public insurer — building frameworks that make responsible AI adoption possible rather than preventing it.
My focus is a practical AI governance framework for EU AI Act compliance: an AI system registry, risk classification, and embedded governance workflows. The goal isn't to avoid risk — it's to make risk transparent and manageable from the start.
My scope includes data governance within Versicherungskammer's Data Driven Transformation programme, and regulatory preparedness for FiDA as Europe's financial data landscape evolves. In early 2025, I transitioned into Corporate Development to embed AI and data governance as a strategic function.
I represent Versicherungskammer in industry regulatory working groups and speak regularly at conferences on proportionate, embedded AI governance.
Earlier in my career: Head of Sales and Customer Success at think-cell, VP & General Manager EMEA at Unisys, SVP at T-Systems, Engagement Manager at McKinsey, and founding engineer at Socratix — a bioinformatics startup in Palo Alto.
Experience
Chief Data Officer
Built Versicherungskammer's AI governance function from scratch: AI system registry, risk classification framework, and governance workflows for EU AI Act compliance. Leading data governance within the company-wide Data Driven Transformation programme and regulatory preparedness for FiDA. Transitioned into Corporate Development in early 2025 to embed AI and data governance as a strategic corporate function. Regular speaker at industry conferences and active in regulatory working groups.
Program Manager Data
Designed and implemented Versicherungskammer's first enterprise-wide data governance framework, establishing organisational structures, roles, and processes for data ownership across business domains. Headed the implementation of the company's first event-driven data platform — the technical foundation for the Data Driven Transformation.
Head of Sales and Customer Success
Built the customer success initiative for think-cell's largest accounts globally. Defined and implemented outbound sales approach, initiated a partnering programme with a major statistics portal, set up an incentive programme with key resellers, and implemented a sales operations dashboard providing end-to-end transparency of the sales process and customer lifecycle.
Vice President & General Manager, EMEA
Global P&L leader for all Life Sciences, Consumer Packaged Goods, and multinational clients in EMEA. Full responsibility for growth, revenue, profitability, and client satisfaction. Achieved 16% year-over-year top-line growth while improving profitability and NPS by +20 points year-over-year. General Manager of Unisys Enterprise Services GmbH in Germany.
Senior Vice President, ICT Operations
Member of the Management Committee of ICT Operations, which delivered private cloud, data centre outsourcing, and end-user computing for multinational customers across 22 countries. Built and led an organisation of ~700 employees in Western Europe and four nearshore/offshore hubs. Implemented a worldwide Six Sigma programme with 11 Master Black Belts and ~100 Black Belts running 100+ improvement projects concurrently.
Director, Quality & Business Improvement
Established Computacenter as a market player in Six Sigma training and consulting. Managed a reorganisation of the sales and service organisation in Germany, affecting ~3,000 employees. Responsible for all strategic process improvement, customer satisfaction, ISO certification (9001, 14001, OHSAS 18001), and company-wide knowledge management.
Engagement Manager
Led strategy, business building, IT architecture, and cost reduction engagements — predominantly in financial services (insurance, banking) with a strong focus on IT strategy. Engagements included IT department co-management, cost reduction programmes for insurers, project portfolio audits, global sourcing IT architectures, and corporate venturing strategy.
Founding Engineer & Director, Information Integration
First employee of a seed-funded bioinformatics startup in Palo Alto. Developed core technology for integrating autonomous heterogeneous databases, building on Stanford research. Presented to VC firms on Sand Hill Road. Managed the company's technical development plan and patent application process.
Speaking &
Industry Engagement
Proportionate AI Governance in Financial Services
Presenting practical approaches to embedding EU AI Act compliance in a regulated environment — drawing on Versicherungskammer's implementation experience with risk classification and governance workflows.
Enabling AI at Scale: From Framework to Practice
How to build governance structures that accelerate responsible AI adoption — sharing lessons learned from designing a governance framework that serves innovation rather than impeding it.
Shaping AI Governance Standards for German Insurance
Active contributor to working groups shaping AI governance and compliance standards across the German insurance industry, bridging regulatory requirements and operational practice.
Latest Posts
The Strength We Have in Excess
My father received Germany’s Federal Cross of Merit today. A reflection on five decades of civic engagement in a small Hessian town.
Read more → April 2026When AI Makes Movies — and Why That’s Not the Interesting Part
An AI-generated film is impressive. But the AI decisions that matter in insurance — pricing, claims, underwriting — are invisible. That’s where governance counts.
Read more → March 2026What Companies Actually Need from AI Regulation
Why the AI regulation debate should focus on legal certainty rather than deregulation — and what Baden-Württemberg's data protection law shows is possible.
Read more → March 2026From Tech Pilots to Scaled Impact
Reflections from the Plug and Play Germany Summit on why governance is a design principle — not a filter at the end — and what that means for Europe's AI advantage.
Read more → February 2026Regulation vs. Reality in Financial Services
Key takeaways from the CDO BFSI Exchange Europe keynote panel on making data and AI work for both compliance and competitiveness.
Read more →Academic
Background
Research focus: information integration & query optimisation
(Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes)
Awards &
Distinctions
Alberto O. Mendelzon Test-of-Time Award
ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems (PODS)
Best Newcomer Paper Award
ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems (PODS)
Fulbright Scholar
U.S.–German Fulbright Commission
Scholar, German National Scholarship Foundation
Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes
Schlumberger Fellowship
Stanford University
Grantee, Hermann-Schlosser-Stiftung
Method and apparatus for knowledgeable searching
Selected
Publications
Answering Recursive Queries Using Views
ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART Symposium on Principles of Database Systems
Recursive Query Plans for Data Integration
Journal of Logic Programming
Query Planning & Optimization in Information Integration
Ph.D. Thesis, Stanford University
Complexity of Answering Queries Using Materialized Views
ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART Symposium on Principles of Database Systems
Query Planning with Disjunctive Sources
AAAI Workshop on AI and Information Integration
Infomaster: An Information Integration System
ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data
Recursive Plans for Information Gathering
International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI)
Query Optimization Using Local Completeness
AAAI National Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Infomaster — An Information Integration Tool
International Workshop on Intelligent Information Integration
Query Planning in Infomaster
ACM Symposium on Applied Computing
Get in touch.
Whether you want to discuss AI governance, data strategy, speaking opportunities, or anything else — I'd be happy to connect.
Munich, Germany