Sebastian Klapdor

CHIEF DATA OFFICER

What do you like most about your role at Vista? 

I love building things, having impact, and working with awesome people.  In my role at Vista, I can do all three! 

At Vista-level I have the opportunity to shape our overall strategy with my executive team colleagues.  Based on this, I can set the vision for DnA, and together with my leadership team, build an organization that empowers our team members to have incredible impact.  Since the inception of DnA in January 2020 we’ve already had the opportunity to unlock so much impact for our customers, team members, and shareholders by building kick-ass data products and providing data-driven insights across our entire value chain.  Finally, I have the privilege to work with such incredibly gifted colleagues from around the world, learn from them every day, and have a tonne of fun!  What could be more exciting than this?   

What does your day-to-day look like? 

Working with teams both asynchronously and live in video calls on our data product visions, attending demos, meeting with my leadership team and my executive team colleagues.  Talking to colleagues outside of DnA to understand how we can better support them with data and analytics.  Spending a lot of time recruiting and exciting awesome candidates who are interested in joining our team.  Communicating to team members in all-hands-meetings, ask-me-anythings, and 1:1s to understand what I can do better.  Talking to other CDOs to get their perspective and advice and attending conferences to learn about hot industry topics. 

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve overcome in your role/team/ area? 

Doubling our global team in size with the hiring and onboarding of 140+ top notch data professionals (including opening a new location in Bangalore), all in a remote-first environment and despite a global pandemic!  It feels like building a spaceship while already being in the air! Such big challenges are regular and numerous – whether to build the right organizational structures, processes and culture to support our org size and mission, to embrace innovative new data technologies and solutions, or to help teams build an urgently needed data product for our internal stakeholders. 

Why is Vista a great partner for small businesses? 

Before and during my time at university, I was a small business owner myself and know how complicated and time consuming it is to get marketing right – our vision to help small businesses grow and live their dreams therefore TOTALLY inspires me every day!  I am still blown away by how we focus on getting it right for our customers – whether it’s design, digital, or print products. 

What do you do when you’re not working?

Most importantly, spending time with my wife and two kids!  We are huge fans of nature and spend a lot of time outdoors hiking, swimming, and skiing.  When I have the chance, I love to sing and play the piano with our DnA Band “Double Helix” (which have actually never met in person, but we’ve already recorded 2 songs).  Finally, I am a passionate private pilot and love flying in a prop plane across the Alps – this really helps me to switch off and enjoy the bird’s eye view!