VCU Business

About Us Directory News & Events Give Map Directory
Headshot of Peter Aiken

Peter Aiken

Associate Professor
President, DAMA International

Area: Information Systems

  • Snead Hall
  • 301 W. Main Street
  • Box 844000
  • Richmond, VA, 23284-4000

Expertise

  • Data Leadership
  • Data Monetization
  • Data Strategy

Interests

Teaching
  • Data
Research
  • Data
Bio

Peter Aiken, PhD is an acknowledged Data Management (DM) authority, an Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, President of DAMA International, and Associate Director of the MIT International Society of Chief Data Officers. For more than 35 years, Peter has learned from working with hundreds of data management practices in 30 countries including some of the world's most important. Among his 12 books are the first on CDOs (the case for data leadership), focusing on data monetization, on modern strategic data thinking and objectively specifying what it means to be data literate. International recognition has resulted in an intensive schedule of events worldwide (pre-Covid). Peter also hosts the longest running data management webinar series hosted by our partners at Dataversity. Starting before Google, before data was big, and before data science, Peter has founded several organizations that have helped more than 200 organizations leverage data–specific savings have been measured at more than $1.5B USD. His latest is Anything Awesome.

Professional Positions

Professional
  • Founding Director, Anything Awesome. (July, 2020-Present).
  • Associate Director, MIT International Society of Chief Data Officers. (October, 2015-Present).
  • President, DAMA International. (January1, 2021-January1, 2027).
  • President, DAMA International. (January1, 2009-January1, 2013).
Government
  • Adjunct Research Staff Member - Information Technology and Systems Division, Institue for Defense Analyses. (July, 2020-Present).
  • Team Member, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. (March, 2024-July, 2025).
  • Computer Scientist (GM-14), Defense Information Systems Agency. (August, 1988-August, 1998).

Licensures and Certifications

  • Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT), ISACA (isaca.org). (March5, 2009-December31, 2018).

Professional Memberships

  • Advisor, Past President, Board Member, DAMA International. (January, 1998 - Present).
  • Senior Member, Association for Computing Machinery. (August, 1985 - Present).
  • Lifetime Member, International Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers. (August, 1985 - Present).

Teaching

Research

Published Intellectual Contributions
Book
  • Aiken, P. H., Harbour, T. (2021). Data Literacy: Achieving Higher Productivity for Citizens, Knowledge Workers and Organizations. (pp.429). Sedona, AZ: Technicas.
  • Aiken, P. H. (2017). Data Strategy and the Enterprise Data Executive. Boston: Technics Publications.
Conference Proceeding
  • Aiken, P. H. (2016). The Case for the CDO.
  • Aiken, P. H., Wang, R. (2016).
  • Akens, K. (2016). Developing and Implementing a Data Quality Program.
  • Aiken, P. H. (2015). Implementing A Graduate Data Engineering Curricula: 
 In spite of .... AIS: AMCIS/BDA EDCOM Proceedings.
  • Aiken, P. H. (2015). The Changing Roles of the Chief Architect and the CIO. NASCIO Proceedings.
Other
  • Aiken, P. H. (in press). Data Mngement; Best Practices. Los Angeles, California: Dataversity.
  • Aiken, P. H., Powell, L. (2017). US Courts Data.
  • Aiken, P. H., Powell, L. (2016). Data Governance in the US Courts.
  • Aiken, P. H. (2016). Future directions of MS in Data Analytics at UMUC. UMUC.
Media Contributions
Radio
  • With Good Reason: Navigating Big Data.In just ten years, the amount of data collected by governments and companies has increased dramatically. But Peter Aiken says just collecting digital data isn’t enough–we need to figure out how to use it to solve real-world problems.. (August 27, 2016).
Internet
  • EDW2025.​Can you ​data? Recognizing Your Inner Data Person in the AI ​Era. (May 7, 2025).
Community Engagement - Scholarship
  • UMGC MSDA APR Review Virtual. (June 3, 2025 - June 3, 2025).
    School of Cyber and IT - External REview Panel.
  • Bank of New York/Mellon Bank. (August 20, 2022 - August 20, 2022).
    Data Literacy.

Service

Department
  • Committee Member, IS Department Search Committee. (April, 2017 - May, 2018).
College
  • Committee Member, School of Business Masters Committee. (March, 2011 - Present).
  • Committee Member, MBA Council. (August, 2000 - Present).
  • Committee Member, EMBA Council. (August, 2000 - May, 2022).
Professional
  • Officer, President/Elect/Past, DAMA International. (January 1, 2020 - Present).
  • Board of Directors, MIT isCDO to Professional Service. (January, 1998 - Present).
  • Program Organizer, Dataversity. (January 14, 2025 - December 9, 2025).
Access Faculty Success (FS) and Edit Profile
Make it real. Campaign for VCUMake it real. Campaign for VCU badge