Florence Haxel

Florence Haxel is an expert in digital transformation, data culture, and AI literacy. She is the founder and CEO of Datalogy, an agency that helps organizations develop their data and AI culture by combining communications, marketing, organizational change, and data management expertise.

A graduate of CELSA, Florence initially spent nearly 20 years running an event communication agency before turning to entrepreneurship. In 2012, she co-founded the women’s collaborative network “Mes Bonnes Copines”, which brought together thousands of women around shared values of support and solidarity.

In 2018, her interest in data and digital technologies led her to work on data and AI literacy at Groupe BPCE, leveraging her communication and marketing skills to facilitate change within the organization.

At the core of her work, Florence promotes a human-centered approach to data, focusing on listening, teaching, and team adoption rather than technology alone. She organizes workshops, training sessions, and content to make data and AI more accessible, encouraging organizations to “market” their data to improve adoption.

Florence regularly shares her insights on data culture, digital transformation, and change management, and leads discussions on the key human challenges related to data.

What is your core conviction as a data leader, and how does it translate into your day-to-day activity?

My core conviction: Data is a human challenge before it is a technical one.

You don’t transform a company with algorithms—you transform it through people. Too often, data projects fail due to a lack of understanding or buy-in. To turn this conviction into reality, there are four vital areas to work on in parallel:

• Education: To demystify AI and data at all levels
• Communication: To make strategies, projects, and data tools visible and understandable
• Change Management: To support the evolution of business functions through communities
• Influence: To establish data as a pillar of strategic decision-making, not just a technical asset

In your view, what is the key role of today’s data leaders in turning data into a lever for sustainable impact?

The key role of the leader is to be a conductor equipped with soft skills

Today, technical expertise is the minimum requirement for leadership, but lasting impact is driven by soft skills. A data leader must be a:

• Storyteller: They don’t just deliver reports—they craft a strategic vision that gives meaning to the numbers.
• Facilitator: They know how to ask the right questions to help business teams uncover their real needs, often hidden beneath requests for “dashboards.”
• Ecosystem animator: They are the guardians of enthusiasm. Their role is to keep the spark alive—both among data experts (for innovation) and business teams (for adoption).