master data

People at Utopia: Mike Jordan

Utopia Marketing | July 28, 2021 | 2 min read

With nine years dedicated to Utopia’s EAM Practice and understanding the importance of master data, Mike Jordan brings a new look at what it means to engage in the digital transformation era. His experience with plant operations at Intergraph and in the oil and gas industry with NRX Global gave him insight to common challenges of dealing with master data. This led to Mike becoming the master data expert he is today. 


What led you to delve into Master Data as a Service? 

Whether working in plant maintenance organizations, plant engineering organizations or engineering design/construction companies, I have found that an accurate understand of an organizations as-built assets has most frequently been the Achilles’ heel in advanced automation initiatives.    

What experience do you feel prepared you to be successful in your current role as VP of Master Data? 

I have experienced the business impacts of bad master data in a variety of settings. Then during my last 12 years I’ve been with cutting edge companies developing creative ways to solve these problems. 

What have been your top three lessons learned in your career? 

I think there may be too many to truly pick just three, so I’ll give you the first three that come to mind. Mike Jordan, from Utopia, by a dock about to go boating.

  1. First is simple, play nice. Life is much too short to make a fuss about little things and everyone is trying to make their own living. Taking that friendly approach often leads to an even greater collaboration or solution. 
  2. The next lesson I learned in my work is that you need to take a few risks. There are very few great innovations that have occurred without someone taking the less-traveled path. We have seen more progress in technology in the last few years than ever before in history. 
  3. And finally, maybe even the most important lesson, live a passionate life. Not just in work. People who live passionately, who go out each day with an attitude of “I can do this” and “I can’t wait to do this” are more successful. They are successful in their work, and successful in their happiness. 

What is your favorite part of the master data community? 

When you work in any industry long enough, you develop much more than just knowledge of the program or product. You get to know the customers and your partners in a way that leads to greater innovation and world progress. The community truly believes in the power of technology, and that’s what we are here for. 

Fun fact about you? 

I am an avid jazz and blues fan, cyclist, and private pilot. These have been my pillars for maintaining my work-life balance over the years. I find any of these to be MUCH better topics for a pub conversation than master data quality (let’s save dirty data for the working hours). Mike Jordan, from Utopia, about to go cycling with some friends and fellow cyclists.

I mentioned earlier that it is important to live passionately both in and out of work. Those are things I’m passionate about and helped me to find my success. My passions helped to round out my life and gave me different networks outside of the professional world and kept my curiosity strong. 

Utopia Global, Inc. 

Utopia specializes in master data and can help you begin the journey to establish and maintain your master data governance practices. Check out more on how we can help your company become a master data expert and why master data is important in our other blog posts! 

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