I want to start by thanking my good friend and coauthor Dalton Cervo for his tremendous contribution and dedication to this book. As part of my acknowledgments with our previous book, I had said that I can only hope for more opportunity to work with Dalton in the future. Well, good fortune prevailed, and once again I had the great pleasure to collaborate with him on this book. As always, Dalton’s experiences and knowledge provided the balance and compliment needed to successfully work through many months of sharing thoughts, editing, and delivering this work.

My knowledge of data management and data governance comes primarily from the practical experiences that I have had in my career with implementing, supporting, and managing programs and projects with very talented and dedicated colleagues. A special thanks also goes to the many past and present coworkers at Sun Microsystems, Oracle, WellPoint, and Anthem who I have enjoyed many journeys with.

Special thanks go to Dylan Jones, Phil Simon, and Tony Fisher, whose endorsements we are very proud to have; and to Evan Levy, for reviewing the manuscript and providing some great feedback.

I am deeply grateful to my lovely wife, Bobbie, and our wonderful children, Kim and Matt, for all their patience and support during the many weekends and evenings I spent working on this book.

I also would like thank David Loshin, who first suggested we contact Morgan Kaufmann Publishers regarding their interest in a book of this nature, and of course my thanks go to Andrea Dierna, Kaitlin Herbert, Steve Elliot, Charlie Kent, and Priya Kumaraguruparan at Morgan Kaufmann and Elsevier for all their assistance throughout the development and production of this book.

First, I want to thank my coauthor, Mark Allen, for his outstanding contribution, dedication, and friendship. This is our second book together, and once more we have had a very enjoyable and complementary collaborative experience. It is always an honor to work with Mark and share our knowledge.

I want to thank my wonderful wife, Milene, and our extraordinary children, Ettore and Gian Lucca, for their love and support. Thanks to my caring mother, Aracy, and my late father, Dan, for their remarkable dedication, teachings, and nurturing.

I also humbly thank the recognized experts who kindly have agreed to endorse this book: Tony Fisher, Phil (Rush) Simon, and Dylan Jones. Big thanks also go to Evan Levy for his review and feedback.

Last, but not least, thanks to Steve Elliot, Charlie Kent, Kaitlin Herbert, Priya Kumaraguruparan, and Andrea Dierna at Morgan Kaufmann and Elsevier for all their assistance throughout the development and production of this book.