Rod Schatz, M.Sc.

C-Suite Executive  ·  Board Director & Chair  ·  Published Author  ·  Co-Founder  ·  Transformation Leader

Enterprise Executive.

Board Director.

Builder of What’s Next.

Download Board Bio  →  (PDF download of board-ready biography)

20+  Years of C-Suite & Senior Executive Leadership

$66M+  in Operational Efficiencies Delivered

16  Years of Board Governance including Chair

75+  Major Enterprise Projects Successfully Delivered

3  Ventures Co-Founded (Startup)

The Boardroom Is Changing.

 

The Question Is Whether Your Board Is Changing With It.

The pace of disruption has outrun the traditional board playbook. Digital transformation, artificial intelligence, data governance, cybersecurity, organizational agility; these are no longer “IT issues.” They are enterprise-level strategic imperatives that directly impact competitiveness, risk exposure, and shareholder value.

 

Yet most boards still lack a director who has actually led transformations from the inside. Someone who has sat at the executive table, managed budgets, built teams, navigated regulatory environments, and driven measurable operational outcomes across every function of the business.

 

Boards don’t need another advisor.

They need a director who has been the executive in the arena and who brings that operational depth to governance.

The Cost of the Wrong Seat at the Table

Strategy Without Execution

Grand visions that never translate into operational reality. When no one at the board table has led transformation delivery, strategy stays on slides. Organizations need directors who know the difference between a roadmap and a result.

 

Blind Spots in Oversight

Digital transformation, AI, data governance, and cybersecurity touch every function of the enterprise; such as operations, finance, HR, compliance, risk. When the board can’t ask informed questions, management’s proposals go unchallenged and risk compounds unseen.

 

Missed Inflection Points

Disruption doesn’t announce itself. The signals are in the data, the market shifts, the operational patterns but only if someone in the room knows how to connect the dots. Organizations that miss inflection points don’t get a second chance to lead.

 

Innovation Without Governance

Moving fast without the right guardrails is how organizations end up in headlines for the wrong reasons. Effective boards enable innovation and manage risk simultaneously that requires directors who have built governance frameworks, not just reviewed them

 

The Executive in the Arena

Rod Schatz has spent over two decades where strategy meets execution leading enterprise transformations, building and scaling teams, managing multi-million dollar budgets, and delivering results that move organizations forward. Not from the sidelines. From the executive table.

 

As a multiple-time CIO reporting directly to CEOs, Rod has been accountable for the full scope of enterprise technology, operations, and organizational change at $MMM organizations. As VP Technology at a $200M employee-owned firm, he led a 40+ person team through a company-wide digital transformation that generated $4.7M in operational savings in its first two years while maintaining less than 2% team turnover in a hot market. At a $B Canadian financial institution, he managed a team of 40+ resources navigating OSFI regulatory requirements. He co-reported to the three Chief Justices of Alberta’s Court System, delivering multi-year, multi-million dollar modernization programs in one of the most complex stakeholder environments in public service.

 

Rod’s career spans the full spectrum of enterprise scale. He has co-founded three ventures self-funded and VC-track taking ideas from napkin sketches through product development, team building, fundraising, and go-to-market execution. As Vice-Chair and Chair of a business incubator, he mentored early-stage entrepreneurs and co-facilitated workshops on building value-based pitch decks. He understands the entrepreneurial mindset and the operational discipline required to scale.

 

What sets Rod apart is his ability to rapidly connect disparate data points across technology, operations, market signals, and regulatory landscapes to surface risks and opportunities before they become obvious. He sees patterns across systems because he has worked across every function of the enterprise operations, finance, HR, compliance, risk, IT, data, safety, and PMO. That cross-functional fluency is rare at the executive level and invaluable at the board level.

 

Rod holds a Master of Science from the University of Alberta, has co-authored a book on digital disruption (Springer), published four peer-reviewed works across Springer and Routledge, and has delivered 40+ conference presentations to industry, government, and academic audiences. He is a practitioner who also contributes to the intellectual frameworks that shape how organizations think about transformation.

 

What I Bring to the Boardroom

Strategic Oversight & Vision

Conceptualized and delivered 17+ enterprise transformation strategies for organizations from $MMM to $B. I don’t just review strategies; I’ve built them, resourced them, and been accountable for their outcomes. I bring a decisive, forward-looking perspective grounded in pattern recognition across industries and organizational models.

 

Financial Acumen & P&L Accountability

Managed ~$40M in operational budgets and ~$55M in project portfolios. Built and managed P&Ls for my own consulting firm, three co-founded ventures, and multiple enterprise divisions. I understand budgets, forecasting, capital allocation, ROI discipline, and the fiduciary responsibility that comes with overseeing organizational resources.

 

Risk, Compliance & Governance

16 years of board governance experience including Board Chair. Operated within OSFI regulatory frameworks at a $B financial institution. Built governance structures for AI, cybersecurity (CIS Controls), data management, and enterprise architecture. I’ve designed governance frameworks that enable innovation while managing risk — across regulated and unregulated environments.

 

Organizational Transformation & Execution

75+ major projects delivered successfully. Mobilized 1,200 employees to remote work in 9 days during COVID. Led enterprise-wide change management using ADKAR methods. Turned around underperforming IT organizations into trusted business partners. I understand that transformation is a people challenge first and a technology challenge second.

 

Technology, AI & Digital Fluency

Built AI models with 800% ROI. Led computer vision teams. Engineered end-to-end data ecosystems from the ground up - three times. Deep practitioner in AI strategy, data governance, enterprise architecture, and hyper-automation. When management presents a technology roadmap, I know which questions to ask because I’ve been the executive delivering it.

 

Entrepreneurial Perspective & Innovation

Co-founded three ventures spanning healthcare AI, pipeline integrity, and customer loyalty from ideation through product development, team building, fundraising, and market validation. Chaired a business incubator for over a decade. Mentored fledgling startups on value creation. I bring the founder’s lens to the boardroom: urgency, resourcefulness, and an instinct for where value is created and where it’s destroyed.

 

Ideas That Shape the Conversation

Rod doesn’t just lead transformation;  he contributes to the intellectual frameworks that shape how organizations think about it. As co-author and co-editor of Phantom ex Machina (Springer), and with peer-reviewed publications across Springer and Routledge, his work bridges the gap between academic rigor and practitioner reality.

 

Book

Phantom ex Machina: Digital Disruption’s Role in Business Model Transformation

Co-editor and contributing author  ·  Springer, 2017

 

Peer-Reviewed Publications

• “The Role of the Two-Order Model for Digital Disruption in Strategy Formulation” — Routledge, 2022
• “Making Sense of Digital Disruption Using a Conceptual Two-Order Model” — Springer, 2017
• “Disruptions: Truths and Consequences” — Springer, 2017
• “Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity in Higher Education” — Springer, 2016

Speaking

40+ conference presentations spanning digital transformation, enterprise strategy, data governance, AI, and organizational change to industry, government, and academic audiences.

 

Board Experience

16 Years of Governance.

At the Table, Not on the Sidelines.

Rod’s board experience spans Crown agencies, innovation organizations, cleantech IP strategy, economic development, and community governance.

He has served as Chair, Vice-Chair, Trustee, and Director and has been an active contributor on governance, operations, and HR committees.

Innovation Asset Collective (IAC)  ·  2025 – Present

Director

Canadian cleantech IP strategy and governance. Governance & Operations Committee.

Alberta Innovates  ·  2023 – 2024

Director

Provincial Crown agency ($260M+) driving research, innovation, and startup ecosystem growth. Governance & HR Committee.

Northern Alberta Business Incubator (NABI)  ·  2009 – 2015, 2017 – 2023

Chair & Director

Sector-agnostic incubator accelerating early-stage businesses. Vice-Chair and Chair. Governance & Operations Committee.

St. Albert Public Library  ·  2009 – 2015

Trustee & Director

Strategic oversight, policy direction, and community accountability.

Spatial Data Warehouse (SDW)  ·  2007 – 2008

Director (TELUS Representative)

Multi-stakeholder geospatial data consortium governance.

City of St. Albert Economic Development Advisory Board  ·  2004 – 2010

Member at Large

Economic strategy, investment attraction, and business retention advisory to City Council.

NAIT GIS Advisory Committee  ·  2004 – 2010

Advisory Member

Post-secondary curriculum alignment with evolving industry workforce needs.

 

Depth Across Industries. Fluency Across Functions.

Industries 

Financial Services  ·  Energy & Utilities  ·  Forestry & Natural Resources  ·  Engineering & Infrastructure  ·  Telecommunications  ·  Government & Public Sector  ·  Justice & Courts  ·  Higher Education  ·  Healthcare  ·  Startups & Venture-Backed

 

Cross-functional Experience:

Operations  ·  Finance & Budgeting  ·  HR & Talent  ·  Risk & Compliance  ·  IT & Data  ·  Safety  ·  PMO  ·  Legal & Regulatory  ·  Sales & Business Development  ·  Product Management  ·  Enterprise Architecture  ·  Organizational Change Management

Let’s Build What’s Next. Together.

 

If your board is looking for a director who brings C-suite operating experience, cross-functional enterprise depth, entrepreneurial perspective, governance discipline, and the practitioner credibility to challenge and support management on the issues that matter most.

 

I would welcome a conversation about how I can accelerate your organization.

Let's chat today.