Madlen Ivanova

As Director at Lowe’s Innovation Labs, Madlen Ivanova leads the Emerging Data Platforms function, driving the future of retail through Physical AI. Her organization is at the forefront of the company’s technology transformation, architecting advanced intelligent systems that bridge the digital and physical worlds—including high-fidelity spatial digital twins, robotics, and complex simulations. In her previous roles within the Store organization, Madlen spearheaded the analytics, data science, and engineering teams supporting Pro and Services, asset protection, and store inventory, delivering proprietary AI-driven products and smart technologies to optimize operations. Prior to that, she led the Digital Data Science team, where she was responsible for designing and scaling the enterprise recommender system powering both Digital and Store channels.

Before joining Lowe’s, Madlen was part of Enterprise Software Solutions, partnering with diverse clients to optimize predictive models, consult on technical architecture, and solve high-stakes strategic and operational challenges.

Deeply committed to growing the technology ecosystem, Madlen is the regional Ambassador for Women in Data Science (WiDS). In 2018, she launched the Charlotte chapter of this Stanford-led initiative in close partnership with UNC Charlotte, where she continues to champion and mentor technical professionals in the field.

Madlen graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science and holds an M.A. in Data Science and Business Analytics from UNC Charlotte. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Computer Science at UNC Charlotte, focusing her doctoral research on Recommender Systems and Information Retrieval.