UK businesses are prioritizing the establishment of a chief trust officer (CTrO) role
There’s a shift happening in UK boardrooms, and it’s overdue. A staggering 97% of UK organizations that took part in Commvault’s recent study now say the Chief Trust Officer role is critical. This isn’t about adding another layer of executives for the sake of it. It’s about handling the digital realities pressing down on companies. Regulations around data are tightening. Cyberattacks are increasing. AI is racing ahead, and many people are unsure whether they can trust how companies use it.
Right now, too many of these risks are being handled in a scattered fashion. One person looks after security. Another handles compliance. Someone else deals with communications during a crisis. The result? Trust falls through the cracks. That isn’t sustainable, especially when the public and stakeholders are paying more attention than ever.
A CTrO doesn’t need to solve every issue alone. But the role gives companies one figure who owns end-to-end responsibility for trust. That means ensuring the privacy of user data, building resilience against external threats, and being transparent when problems happen. Trust is now directly tied to market value and business continuity. A single leader focused on this can make operations tighter, cleaner, and more aligned.
For executive teams, this role isn’t about public relations. It’s about operational effectiveness and strategic stability. The CTrO creates a stronger core in the company by aligning legal, security, and customer trust strategies. When compliance and cybersecurity are treated separately, inefficiencies creep in. Appointing someone with the right range of strategic and technical knowledge to drive this alignment is less about protecting reputation, and more about preventing systemic failure. With threats growing and regulation enforcing higher standards, this is becoming a baseline requirement for leading in the digital age.
Fragmentation of trust responsibilities undermines effective risk management
Too many companies have split trust responsibilities across different roles, COO, CIO, CISO, and others. According to the same study, while 92% of UK companies have someone on the board handling aspects of digital trust, only a small portion say one person truly owns it. In fact, 7% admit that no one leader holds full accountability, and 1% aren’t even sure.
This fragmentation slows down response time, confuses accountability, and introduces gaps in risk management. Trust issues aren’t just technical problems, they’re business risks with a direct line to revenue loss or regulatory exposure. Without a single leader owning trust, responses to data breaches or AI missteps are often messy, delayed, and, at times, legally expensive.
More importantly, trust touches every corner of modern business: how data is collected, managed, and shared; how breaches are disclosed; and how customers are engaged. Each function matters. But when 3–4 people split responsibility with different agendas and reporting structures, the system breaks down. Establishing a single CTrO creates one chain of command, one playbook, and one voice, even under pressure.
For business leaders who see risk as a shared responsibility, that thinking isn’t wrong, but it’s incomplete. Collaboration across legal, compliance, and tech is necessary. However, without clear leadership, collaboration becomes noise. Executives should view trust as a strategic category rather than an IT issue. A dedicated trust officer with board-level access ensures decisions around compliance, cybersecurity, and ethical AI are coordinated and intentional, not reactive or scattered.
Customer trust and crisis response are identified as top priorities for the new CTrO role
Business reputations are increasingly shaped by how quickly and transparently they respond to crises. Whether it’s a data breach, disinformation campaign, or regulatory fine, the first 24 hours often define outcomes. This is why senior executives across the UK are backing a dedicated, highly visible role to lead this charge. According to Commvault’s research, 31% of respondents prioritize reputation management as a key function for the Chief Trust Officer (CTrO), and 30% point to crisis response as equally critical.
The CTrO isn’t just about putting out fires. The real job is preparing the organization to prevent them in the first place, by establishing frameworks for communication, reporting structures, and policies that can withstand scrutiny before an issue goes public. Corporate trust today includes how data is handled, how stakeholders are informed, and how clearly a company can explain its own systems and decisions, especially around AI.
Executives understand the damage that comes from hesitation or inconsistency. When crises break, there’s little time for fragmented decision-making. The CTrO enables faster coordination with legal, compliance, IT security, and external communications, simplifying action under pressure and helping prevent long-term brand erosion.
For top-level decision-makers, this isn’t primarily about damage control. It’s strategic readiness. As stakeholders, customers, investors, regulators, gain more access to information, they also raise their expectations. A formal CTrO has the access, authority, and cross-functional mandate to engage with multiple stakeholder groups in a single voice. This protects more than just reputation, it preserves confidence across markets and ecosystems that depend on predictable, transparent behavior during breaches or operational failures.
External pressures from AI, stringent data regulations, and cybersecurity threats necessitate a dedicated trust officer
Executives don’t need reminders that AI is fast-moving, that data regulations shift constantly, or that cyber threats are relentless. But what’s clear now is that these forces are converging, and companies without a consolidated trust strategy face compound risk. In the Commvault research, 37% of respondents identified the rise of AI as a central driver of trust-related concerns. Meanwhile, 34% specifically cited more aggressive cross-border data regulations, and another 34% flagged persistent cybersecurity threats like ransomware.
When these risks are viewed independently, they seem manageable. But treating them as separate issues can blind companies to interdependencies. AI systems trained on sensitive data raise privacy compliance concerns. Regulatory expectations impact how companies manage geographic data storage, especially when AI intersects with international rules. And cybersecurity playbooks can fall short if they don’t integrate real-time policies around AI-enabled exploits.
This makes a clear case for the CTrO. You need one person to understand how AI fits into compliance frameworks, how cybersecurity layers affect stakeholder communication, and how trust is built when any misstep can go global in minutes. Businesses want to move fast on AI and digital systems. But moving fast while retaining stakeholder confidence? That requires trust to be regimented, consistent, and led.
For leadership teams betting on fast digital transformation, this issue demands attention. Governance around AI, data flow, and breach notification is not yet standardized, it varies by country, by sector, and sometimes by customer expectation. A Chief Trust Officer who can contextualize risk in this evolving environment adds real weight to strategic planning. Without that perspective, companies risk exposing themselves in ways that can slow innovation and amplify liability.
The role of a chief trust officer requires a blend of technical expertise and strategic communication skills
Trust is no longer managed through security protocols and privacy policies alone. While those are crucial, what business leaders are demanding now is a hybrid skill set. The Chief Trust Officer (CTrO) must understand the technical depth behind data privacy regimes and AI governance frameworks, and also be able to clearly communicate that understanding across the boardroom, regulators, and end users. In Commvault’s research, 28% of executives listed data privacy and regulatory knowledge as the most crucial skill for this role. Another 27% pointed to AI governance, and an equal 27% emphasized the ability to guide stakeholder trust.
This combination of skills isn’t optional. The CTrO needs to translate complex regulatory obligations into clear risk management strategies and ensure technical AI implementations align with legal frameworks and public expectation. On the communication side, the CTrO is often the one clarifying what went wrong, and what’s being done to fix it, when something breaks. Being able to lead in the midst of scrutiny requires both credibility and clarity.
This means executives appointing CTrOs should focus on depth rather than specialization. You need someone with systems-level thinking. Someone who knows how laws are evolving across jurisdictions and how AI implementation will impact governance, reputation, and compliance. And they must be capable of explaining all of that to a shareholder, a journalist, or a policy-maker without creating confusion, or legal risk.
For C-suite leaders making hiring or structural decisions, it’s not enough to find someone “good with risk” or “strong on compliance.” The risks are dynamic, the regulatory landscape is inconsistent, and stakeholder expectations are only getting more detailed. The CTrO’s value lies in being at the intersection of emerging tech, regulatory shifts, and trust dynamics, not just overseeing checklists or enforcement. Strong communication is essential for scaling operations without compounding reputational liability.
Managing trust has evolved into a strategic board-level issue impacting corporate reputation and overall business resilience
The concept of trust in business used to sit in legal or IT departments, as something reactive. That’s changed. Today, discussions about digital trust are happening in the boardroom because they directly influence share prices, shareholder confidence, and long-term market positioning. Leaders no longer have the luxury of treating data breaches as purely technical problems. They have to account for regulatory enforcement, public visibility, and financial consequences. Trust has moved from being optional overhead to core competitive infrastructure.
This viewpoint is reinforced by Danielle Sheer, Chief Trust Officer at Commvault, who said: “Resilience is a strategic priority for global enterprises. Ten years ago, a data breach was a significant technical issue. Today it’s also a headline, a lawsuit, and a board-level crisis, all in one.” Her perspective reflects the increasing pressure on senior leaders to proactively safeguard both technical integrity and brand equity. It’s not about controlling narratives; it’s about maintaining operational truth, and being visibly prepared to hold ground when everything is evaluated under the spotlight.
Executives aligned with this direction will treat trust not simply as a compliance function, but as a strategic category requiring discipline, reporting, and investment.
For executive teams navigating volatile landscapes, digitally, politically, regulatorily, embedding trust into board-level strategy is no longer about optics. It’s about survivability at scale. When trust fails, the cost compounds fast: fines, lost contracts, investor walkouts. That’s why resilience must be designed preemptively, with trust-led governance driving policies, infrastructure decisions, and all external-facing communication.
Key executive takeaways
- Chief trust officers are becoming essential: 97% of large UK firms now see the Chief Trust Officer (CTrO) as critical for managing trust across AI, data regulation, and cybersecurity. Leaders should consider this role to unify strategy around these fast-moving risks.
- Fragmented trust ownership limits response effectiveness: With trust split across roles like CIOs and COOs, gaps and delays impact crisis management. Executives should centralize accountability under a dedicated CTrO to improve coordination and reduce risk exposure.
- Crisis response and trust management must be led from the top: Reputation and rapid incident response are top priorities for business leaders. Establishing a CTrO enables faster, clearer action when disinformation or data breaches hit.
- External risk drivers demand strategic trust leadership: AI adoption, tighter data laws, and relentless cyber threats together require integrated leadership. Assigning a dedicated trust executive helps prevent blind spots and supports faster compliance alignment.
- CTrOs need depth in regulation, AI, and communication: Executives should seek candidates with strong knowledge of data privacy, AI governance, and the ability to engage stakeholders with clarity. This combination is vital to maintaining market and regulatory trust.
- Trust now defines enterprise resilience at board level: Trust is no longer a technical afterthought, it drives reputation, investment confidence, and operational continuity. Boards should treat trust as strategic infrastructure led by executives with the authority to act.
