The rising importance of the chief trust officer
Sriraman Parthasarathy, Partner, Deloitte India, says, “The role of CTrO involves overseeing trust-building initiatives by continuously assessing the trust levels within and outside the organisation. The trust framework chosen by the organisation would typically include several domains covering interalia corporate culture, employee satisfaction, compliance, digital, customer experience, etc. While trust building is a collective responsibility within the company, having a CTrO often makes one person directly accountable to the board, due to the critical and overarching nature of the role.”
Shantanu Rooj, Founder and CEO, TeamLease Edtech, explains that the underlying reasoning for this designation is the rising importance of trust in today’s world. The pace of digital transformation, increasing polarisation of media, geopolitical uncertainty and increasing expectations of stakeholders make trust a top-of-mind issue for executives. As more business functions seek to demonstrate trust, the chief trust officer has emerged as a strategic leader to help build trust across the organisation and the surrounding ecosystems.
Rooj adds specific examples to clarify the point: “Several companies have appointed chief trust officers to manage trust effectively. For instance, Salesforce named Lindsey Finch as chief trust and security officer in 2021, overseeing global trust and compliance. IBM appointed Christina Montgomery as chief privacy officer in 2019, focusing on privacy compliance. Microsoft's Chief Privacy Officer Julie
