Gartner Expert

Rita L. Sallam

Distinguished VP Analyst, KI Leader/Chief of Research

Rita Sallam is a Distinguished VP analyst and Gartner Fellow in the Data and Analytics team. Mrs. Sallam's focus includes tracking market trends, vendor assessment and selection, and identifying best practices for realizing business value from data, analytics and AI investments. Of particular interest is how leaders can leverage disruptions in AI to create sustainable competitive advantage. She is also focused on building frameworks for selecting and valuing data and analytics portfolios including AI investments, including Generative AI.

Previous experience

Mrs. Sallam joined Gartner in 2008 with almost 20 years of experience in the enterprise software market. Before that, she spent 10 years with Oracle, delivering competitive intelligence and strategic analysis on BI, data warehousing, data integration and master data management markets. Prior to that, she led business planning, investment fundraising and strategy development for two middleware startups, was a start-up CFO, and was a management/strategy consultant focused on mergers and acquisitions for Arthur D. Little.

Professional background

Arthur D. Little, Management/Strategy Consultant, 4 years

Concept 5 Technologies, Director of Business Planning, 4 years

Oracle, Senior Director of Competitive Intelligence, 10 years

Areas of coverage
  • Analytics and Artificial Intelligence

  • Data and Analytics Leaders and Programs

  • Artificial Intelligence

  • Chief Data and Analytics Officer Executive Leadership

Education

M.B.A., Finance, Northeastern University

B.S./B.A., International Business/French, American University

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Top Issues That I Help Clients Address

01

Comparing and selecting the right vendors

02

Assessing cost of ownership

03

How to take advantage of key trends in analytics and BI

04

Developing a successful analytics strategy and program