Have you ever been shopping for a product online—say, a pair of running shoes—and noticed the product description was incorrect? Or maybe when you filtered the shoe brand’s inventory by color or cushion thickness, the results just weren’t quite right, and it was difficult to find what you were looking for. This is often due to a lack of data governance, meaning the roles and responsibilities that ensure a website’s data shows up in the correct way and is useful for a customer is either not in place or insufficient.
Catie Crossman ’14 is currently helping sportswear company ASICS avoid such data missteps as their global data governance officer. Working from The Hague in the Netherlands, she is establishing processes that ensure data flows through the company in the right way and can be used reliably across the business. Her work touches nearly every corner of the company.
“The cool part of my role is that I work very closely with our IT department, as well as the business side. I’m kind of a spider in the web, connecting the business with IT,” she said. “I get to know how the company works end-to-end, from creating the product, to developing the product, to actually selling the product.”
That end-to-end view is essential for making sure ASICS’ data is entered consistently and accurately, whether that’s the technical specifications of a new shoe or the product details customers rely on when shopping online. And this work has taken on new urgency as the role of data evolves in both retail and performance tracking.
“What’s cool now is it’s really transforming,” Crossman said about how data use is expanding with new technology. “Now we’re talking about data and analytics governance and AI governance. Within data governance, I’m also involved in those conversations, because without having the right data and ensuring that it can be trusted, you’re then creating AI solutions that are feeding the wrong information or putting together reports based off incorrect figures. It’s really the base of everything.”
That connection between data and real-world applications is what motivates Crossman every day.
“You really get to see the connection between technology, data and the human side,” she said. “Every day when I go work, I’m inspired by actually seeing what we’re doing around me. There’s the whole ASICS Frontrunner community, which is people who are actually wearing the shoe and normalizing what a sound mind, sound body looks like. I find that really inspiring to follow. I can really see that what I’m doing has an impact on the world around me, whether it’s within the company or outside the company. If what we’re doing from a data perspective is not correct or doesn’t fit the needs of the business, it can impact our customer, it can impact the athlete who’s wearing the shoe at the end of the day.”
That human impact has also shaped the work she does outside ASICS to support her local running community. For Crossman, running began as a way to reclaim her well-being during a period of burnout early in her career, eventually leading her to train for and complete the 2019 Chicago Marathon. From there, she said, her confidence grew, and she realized she wanted to help others through similar experiences.
That desire became Run to Empower, a running community she leads in The Hague. Women gather regularly for group runs, one-on-one coaching with Crossman and the chance to build confidence together in a supportive environment. Crossman’s goal was to create the kind of no-pressure running environment she once struggled to find herself. Having often felt left behind in traditional running clubs, she set out to build a different kind of space where runners of all paces can feel welcome, empowered and connected.
That ethos also guides her work as a board member for Run Her Way, a nonprofit working to make running safer for women. The organization takes a data-driven approach to identifying risks and designing solutions, another place where she sees her ASICS experience directly complementing her community work.
“I believe in empowering people through movement,” Crossman said, a value that unites her work in business, sport and community building.
Crossman sees her community work and her ASICS role as deeply intertwined. Both rely on listening, meeting people where they are and building systems that help others thrive. In her running communities, that means creating spaces where women feel safe and supported. In corporate settings, it means designing data structures and systems that give teams the clarity and confidence to make effective decisions across the company. Whether she’s guiding a company-wide data transformation or helping someone train for their first marathon, Crossman’s goal is the same: to help people move forward with purpose.
About Mines
Colorado School of Mines is a public R1 research university focused on applied science and engineering, producing the talent, knowledge and innovations to serve industry and benefit society – all to create a more prosperous future.
