Profile: Nicole Ponstingle

Meet Nicole Ponstingle. COO and Partner at Pandata LLC.

Name: Nicole Ponstingle

Job: COO and Partner at Pandata LLC

City: Cleveland

Hometown: Westlake

Q: What do you do at Pandata?
Pandata empowers innovative organizations to plan, design, and scale approachable AI solutions that are built by humans, for humans. Harnessing the valuable insights within customer and workforce data enables our clients to make more informed business decisions, including a measurable competitive advantage. We really shine at including the human element in the art of what is AI-possible.
 
As the COO of our nearly 5-year-old organization, my role touches a lot of things. My background is in marketing and business development, so I steward our brand and sales strategy, oversee business operations and champion our culture and talent pipeline. Having a hand in our growth and maturity has been the most rewarding thing I have done in my career. 

Q: What’s a problem you're working to solve? 
Evaluating AI through the lens of ethics and inclusion. As AI becomes increasingly complex and opaque, it becomes both more challenging and crucial to evaluate AI for unintended consequences and underlying bias.

Q: What’s a lesson you’ve learned that's shaped your work? 
Two core themes that have shaped my work are resiliency and curiosity. I don’t believe in calling myself an expert at anything, as that would mean my learning is done. And while we all face hardships in our professional life, it is the drive to push forward and never settle that truly motivates me. There is always room for fresh ideas and out of the box thinking. It’s what fuels growth. 
 
At Pandata, two of our core values are “crave knowledge” and “manifest entrepreneurship,” and they are attributes that we have all come into the company with. We live and hire by our values, so it’s truly woven throughout every part of the organization. It keeps us working towards a common goal of growing the company.

Q: What’s a trend in technology or innovation that doesn’t get enough attention? 
In our space, we evangelize the role of the AI Translator. While it is an emerging role, it is an important one as AI becomes more widely adopted. It’s unique in that it typically comes with a business background but a working knowledge of AI concepts and processes that are learned by a combination of education and shadowing AI practitioners (or AI team). So, think data scientists, data engineers, machine learning engineers. The role is exactly as it sounds, they are the translator and intermediary, helping to make the data science process more relatable to a business audience. It’s also a part of my role that I am continuing to grow into. 

Q: What’s one moonshot idea that could help make Ohio a world leader in technology and innovation? 
There is so much technology-focused workforce development going on in this state. Every region seems to be making it a priority. Up here in Cleveland we have the RITE, which champions the development of diverse tech talent starting at the high school level on up through those who are upskilling. Imagine the power of bringing together all the work being done on a regional level and creating a plan to make Ohio the technology talent nucleus of the Midwest. I see OhioX having an enormous role to play in this.

Q: What’s a recent book, podcast or news story that you found interesting? 
I am currently reading The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace by Gary Chapman & Paul White. I am a huge believer in showing appreciation in all areas of life. Specific to the work environment, when people feel like they have a voice and there is value in their ideas and opinions, it provides cohesion and fosters job satisfaction, which is something we all want. The power of ‘thank you’ is immense.

Q: What's your favorite place in Ohio? 
As tough of a choice as this is, I love our Cleveland Metroparks. The sprawling beauty, no matter the season, is something we are so lucky to have. The fact that the Metroparks system includes everything from the lakefront to quarries to wetlands – where you can enjoy such a diverse ecosystem of flora and fauna - makes for a lifetime of exploration.

Q: What makes Ohio special to you?  
This is where my family is, so this is where my heart is. I moved away to Houston in the second half of the 90’s but that Ohio pull is so strong that 20 years later, I am still here. So many of us Ohioans have boomerang stories and there is a reason for that. 

Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn.