Building Trust and Talent in the AI Era: Lessons from NFL, Paramount, and More

January 12, 2026

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About the Guests

Mark Sherwood

EVP & CIO of Wolters Kluwer

Mark Sherwood is EVP & CIO of Wolters Kluwer. He previously served as CIO at Nuance (acquired by Microsoft) and held senior engineering roles at Microsoft. At Wolters Kluwer, Mark partners closely with the CFO to ensure AI investments translate to measurable cost savings and revenue enablement.

Lakshman Nathan

EVP & Chief Information Officer at Paramount

Lakshman Nathan is EVP & Chief Information Officer at Paramount. With over two decades at CBS and Viacom, he’s overseen massive M&A integrations, the rise of streaming, and now Paramount’s transition following its acquisition by Skydance. He’s steering AI strategy across distinct cultural groups, from production to legal to marketing.

Paul Ballew

Chief Data & Analytics Officer at the National Football League (NFL)

Paul Ballew is Chief Data & Analytics Officer at the National Football League. He previously served in similar roles at Ford Motor Company, Dun & Bradstreet, Loblaw, and GM. Across his career, he has led large-scale transformations in data, analytics, and customer engagement. At the NFL, he leads the One-to-One Initiative, unifying fan data across all 32 clubs.

Episode Overview

1045: AI is no longer a side experiment—it’s a core capability. But are your people, partnerships, and governance models ready for it?

In this special Metis Strategy Summit panel episode, three seasoned technology leaders explore what it really takes to build trust, scale talent, and lead responsibly in the age of AI:

Paul Ballew, Chief Data & Analytics Officer, National Football League
Lakshman Nathan, EVP & CIO, Paramount
Mark Sherwood, EVP & CIO, Wolters Kluwer

Moderated by Peter High, the conversation dives into transformation through the lens of distributed governance, workforce readiness, and the human element behind every AI ambition.

Key themes from the panel include:

How the NFL’s “One-to-One” fan engagement model blends personalization and privacy
What happens when $2B in savings depends on department-level AI strategy (Paramount)
Why “value realization” starts with your CFO and ends with trust (Wolters Kluwer)
The limits of centralization—and why distributed innovation may win out
How to balance Copilot rollouts with responsible AI guardrails

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