Samantha Kappagoda served as faculty at the NACD Master Class® on Technology and Innovation Oversight on April 9–10, 2026 in Washington, DC. She participated in the session Data, Digital Assets, and The Board’s Decision-Making on April 9, 2026. The session was moderated by Heather L. Wishart-Smith, NACD.DC, Director at Mead & Hunt and Orion, and Fellow of the Society of American Military Engineers. Samantha’s fellow panelists were:
- Denise Fleming, Board Member, Parker Hannifin Corporation and Executive Leadership Council; Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President, Technology and Global Services, Becton, Dickinson and Company
- Greg Bosworth, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, VHB
The session explored best practices for board oversight of data strategies and maintaining trust in data assets, including the following topics:
- Governance of AI-powered analytics
- Managing cross-departmental data access and sharing
- Intellectual property protection in the age of generative AI
- Compliance with emerging global data regulations
- How legacy IT and tech debt undermine data value and increase corporate risk exposure
- What boards can do to push for modernization without derailing operations
Samantha Kappagoda’s Contribution at the NACD Master Class 2026
In her second consecutive year serving as faculty at the NACD Master Class on Technology and Innovation Oversight, Samantha addressed data strategy, digital assets, AI-powered analytics, and the governance challenges of legacy IT and technology debt. Her observations drew on her operating depth as Chief Data Scientist at Numerati® Partners, her active board service as Board Director, Nominating Committee Chair, and Audit Committee Member at the Credit Suisse Funds under UBS, and her published thought leadership in Directors & Boards and the NACD Director Essentials series. Her perspective addressed how boards can govern data as a strategic asset and decision-making input rather than a compliance obligation, and how directors can engage management on the risk and modernization tradeoffs that data infrastructure decisions require, including the intellectual property and regulatory dimensions that generative AI is introducing into data governance at speed.
Samantha previously served as faculty at the NACD Master Class on Technology and Innovation Oversight in April 2025, as organizer and moderator of Board Governance Under Uncertainty: It’s the Economy… at NACD Summit 2025, and as a panelist for Blind Spots in the Boardroom at NACD Summit 2024. She was also a contributor in 2025 to NACD Director Essentials: Implementing AI Governance. She will serve as a panelist again at NACD Summit 2026.
About Samantha Kappagoda
Samantha Kappagoda is a board director and technology strategist who brings a distinctive blend of capital markets judgment, AI governance and data strategy expertise to complex, regulated environments. Her boardroom perspective leverages her operating experience — in data, analytics and technology — to navigate emerging opportunities, drive value and mitigate risk.
Samantha currently serves as Board Director, Nominating Committee Chair and Audit Committee Member at the Credit Suisse Funds, now under UBS (NYSE: UBS), and a Member of the Governing Council Business Board at the University of Toronto. She also serves as Chief Data Scientist and Co-Managing Member of Numerati® Partners LLC, and Visiting Scholar at Courant Institute School of Mathematics, Computing and Data Science at New York University.
Recognized by the Financial Times as a Future 50 Director, and a Director to Watch by Directors & Boards magazine, Samantha is the author of Board Governance of AI & Emerging Technologies, and Do Boards Need “AI Expert” Directors? both in Directors & Boards, and a contributor to NACD Director Essentials: Implementing AI Governance. She is an active contributor at governance forums in USA, Canada and UK, addressing AI and data governance, cybersecurity, financial markets and global macroeconomic trends. She has served as faculty at NYU Directors’ Academy, NACD Master Class on Technology and Innovation Oversight and Diligent Institute, and been an invited panelist at conferences including Character of the Corporation, Corporate Board Member, Independent Directors Council, Institute of Directors UK, KPMG Board Leadership Conference, NACD Summit, Private Directors Association, Society for Corporate Governance, WCD Global Institute, and WGOB Canada. Samantha has been awarded the DCRO Institute Certificate in Risk Governance®, Certificate in Private Company Governance from the Private Directors Association, and has also completed the Harvard Business School Program Making Corporate Boards More Effective. For additional information, please see Samantha’s biography, recent news and conferences.
