We continue our Meet the Team series with FSFP engagement partner Nellie McBride.
Nellie has over 18 years of experience in data governance management and leadership. As an enterprise data strategist, she has experience managing metadata, master data, data quality, compliance, data lineage, data security, data classification and many other aspects of data governance. We know you’ll enjoy learning more about her.
If you could work remotely anywhere, where would it be?
Mexico. I love the beach and Mexico’s relaxed atmosphere. I have many friends who live there. I’ve seen folks transitioning from life post-COVID and still managing kids and work and all the things. That’s inspirational. I would love that.
Can you explain your role and focus at FSFP?
I am an engagement partner, so I do various things depending on the day. My role is to support sales and revenue generation and look for new opportunities to serve customers. I am also concentrating on supporting and establishing our partnerships with Collibra and SAP. I help ensure our services align with the organization’s strengths and changing market needs. My role also involves internal and external work to help new customers, existing customers and prospects with extensive transformation efforts like ERP and AI.
What do you enjoy most about what you do at FSFP?
I love the opportunity to bring innovation to what we’re doing from a First San Francisco Partners perspective. FSFP has a remarkable number of core data capabilities that are important to developing new industry opportunities.
For companies and enterprises to succeed, whether government or private, they need to be able to manage data, use it and bring value to it. I love developing our existing services to meet these evolving market demands.
What’s the most valuable career advice you have ever received?
The most valuable advice I’ve ever heard is to really listen. Establish trust by listening to the client’s needs. That holds for clients and my team. Life is always a journey; there are constantly new things to learn, diverse ways of listening and different ways of doing things. Whether with a client or the team, it’s all about building trust. Listening enables a clear path ahead, alignment and a vision that everyone can rally around and collaborate on to maximize success.
What career or life advice do you often give to others?
One of my favorite pieces of advice is to trust yourself. Be open to new opportunities, take risks and surround yourself with people who support and enable you to do so. It’s the best way to grow, learn, remain involved and stay excited about your work.
Which of the FIRST values (focus, integrity, resourcefulness, skillfulness, teamwork) resonates the most with you, and why?
Integrity! Building on the last couple of comments, believing in yourself, empowering others and listening takes integrity. These are only sometimes easy to do. Personal integrity and self-trust help you believe in and trust others. Teamwork is difficult without integrity. Whatever the goal is, be sure it’s clear to you and the team. Integrity is the foundation for all the other values.
What part of working at home do you find most enjoyable? Conversely, what do you find most challenging?
What I find most enjoyable is flexibility and controlling my environment. I have my own office and have set that up as my place to conduct business. The challenge is managing my time in a way that simultaneously meets all my other needs and goals as a parent and friend. Working from home is wonderful but challenging, so boundaries are essential. It’s imperative if you’re working from home remotely to establish boundaries so you can be effective at work and in all your other roles, whatever they may be.
Can you tell me about a movie or TV show you love watching or binge-watching?
I love Ted Lasso, so that was one of the last memorable ones I watched with my kids. Finding something to watch with my kids is fun, and they really enjoy it. I love the teamwork around the show, and I appreciate the leadership progression that happens. I relate to it on so many levels.
What is the top issue many of FSFP’s clients face today, and how can you help solve it?
I have two answers. Many of our clients need help maximizing enterprise data’s value. The challenge is that there is so much data, and the technical and business ecosystem to support, build and manage data is getting more complex daily. We help isolate and identify the most important aspects of managing client data. We guide them with questions like: What’s critical data? How does that impact revenue? How does it affect your operating costs? And how does it drive you forward? Compliance can be challenging because of the amount of data and complexity our clients face. That’s the first issue in terms of the magnitude of the problem.
Another challenge is dealing with AI and machine learning (ML). It’s not a matter of when it’s coming. It’s happening now, and managing the ethics and compliance around it is complex. Harnessing its value while managing the risk is enormous. From a technology and innovation perspective, it’s the next significant challenge. I liken it to what happened when the Internet came around 40 years ago. The most prominent challenge around managing data will be how to harness AI’s value in a thoughtful, productive, ethical way. The balance is to produce results and be mindful and respectful of data subject rights and AI’s potential implications.
We hope you enjoyed the latest installment in our Meet the Team series. Check out our other interviews to learn more about the people who make FSFP tick.
