Dr. Rebecca Staunton is a Managing Director and Head of IT Transformation – Strategic & Regulatory Affairs and AI Engagement and Adoption Lead at State Street Bank International GmbH. She is responsible for Technology Strategy & Transformation, enterprise AI engagement and adoption, Digitalization & Innovation, IT Material Change Control, and the SSBI IT Products domain, driving strategic change and governance across CTB, PTB, and RTB portfolios. She also leads the SSBI IT PMO and serves as the Netherlands Branch IT Lead. With more than 20 years of global leadership, she has held senior roles at Philips, Adobe, UBS, Barclays, J.P. Morgan, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Kaiser Permanente. Rebecca holds a Doctor of Business Administration, an MS in Technology Management, is PMP, CSM, and CSPO certified, and is currently pursuing the IAPP Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional (AIGP) certification.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with CIO Magazine, Rebecca shared insights from her 20+ year journey leading technology transformation, innovation, and governance. She reflected on the leadership principles that have guided her career, the importance of balancing innovation with accountability, and the role of governance in enabling sustainable change. Rebecca also discussed responsible AI adoption, the value of continuous learning, and the need to create environments where people and organizations can thrive. Her advice to future leaders is to define success on their own terms, lead with character and judgment, and focus on the impact they have on others. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Hi Rebecca. Every leader has a starting point that shapes them. What was the first experience or role that made you realize technology and transformation would be your career path?
My career did not begin with a fascination for technology—it began with a fascination for solving complex business problems and helping organizations navigate change.
Early in my career, I realized that technology was rarely the challenge in itself. The real challenge was helping people, processes, and organizations adapt to change in ways that created lasting business value. Whether introducing a new operating model, leading enterprise transformation, or navigating regulatory change, success was never determined solely by the technology. It was determined by leadership, trust, governance, and disciplined execution.
Over time, my perspective evolved. I no longer see technology simply as an enabler. I see it as an enabler, a driver, a protector, and an accelerant. Technology enables organizations to achieve outcomes that were once unimaginable. It drives innovation and competitive advantage. It protects organizations by strengthening resilience, cybersecurity, governance, and trust. And it accelerates transformation by helping ideas move from vision to execution with greater speed and impact.
That realization has shaped every role I have taken across financial services, healthcare, and global technology organizations. I have consistently been drawn to environments where transformation is strategically important and operationally complex because those are the moments when leadership has the greatest opportunity to create meaningful and lasting change.
For me, technology is never the destination. It is the catalyst that enables people, strengthens organizations, and creates sustainable business value. The true measure of transformation is not the technology itself, but the positive outcomes it delivers for the business, its customers, and society.
You sit at the intersection of technology, regulation, and innovation. What excites you most about that space right now?
For much of my career, organizations tended to view innovation, regulation, and governance as separate conversations—sometimes even competing priorities. Today, I believe we’re witnessing a fundamental shift. The most successful organizations are recognizing that innovation and governance are not opposing forces; they’re mutually reinforcing.
What excites me most is that trust has become a strategic capability. As AI becomes embedded in every aspect of business, organizations are discovering that responsible innovation isn’t simply about meeting regulatory expectations. It’s about creating confidence among customers, employees, regulators, boards, and society that technology is being developed and used responsibly.
Artificial intelligence has accelerated this evolution. The question is no longer whether organizations should adopt AI. The real challenge is how to operationalize it at enterprise scale while preserving transparency, accountability, and human oversight. That requires far more than technology. It requires leadership capable of bringing together business strategy, governance, risk, ethics, and innovation into a single operating model.
The pace of change is accelerating. What do you see as the single biggest shift in how regulated industries will use technology over the next 5 years?
I believe the biggest shift over the next five years won’t be AI itself—it will be the industrialization of trust.
Historically, organizations-built technology first and then layered governance, security, compliance, and controls around it. That model isn’t sustainable in an environment where AI systems continuously learn, evolve, and influence business decisions.
Going forward, governance will become part of the engineering process itself. Risk management, cybersecurity, compliance, model oversight, and accountability will be designed into technology from the very beginning rather than inspected at the end.
The organizations that distinguish themselves won’t necessarily be those deploying the most AI. They’ll be the ones that consistently earn the confidence of customers, regulators, investors, and employees because trust has become an intentional design principle rather than an afterthought.
Talent is the bottleneck in transformation. What skill sets will be most scarce and most critical in financial services and healthcare by 2030?
We often talk about technical skills, but I believe the greatest shortage by 2030 won’t be technical talent alone—it will be leadership judgment.
Organizations can teach people new technologies. What is much harder to develop is the ability to navigate ambiguity, balance competing priorities, make ethical decisions, and bring diverse stakeholders together around a common objective.
Future leaders will certainly need to understand AI, cybersecurity, data, regulation, and business strategy. But equally important will be their ability to communicate across disciplines—to explain complex technologies in language that boards, regulators, clinicians, customers, and employees can understand and trust.
Throughout my career, I’ve learned that technical expertise may earn you a seat at the table, but judgment, credibility, and the ability to unite people around a shared vision are what sustain leadership over time.
Sustainability is becoming a tech mandate. How do you see technology enabling both business growth and environmental responsibility in the coming years?
I believe sustainability is ultimately a leadership question rather than a technology question.
Technology gives us unprecedented visibility into how organizations consume resources, manage operations, and make decisions. AI, advanced analytics, and automation enable us to optimize everything from energy consumption and infrastructure to supply chains and operational processes.
But the real opportunity extends beyond environmental efficiency. It’s about responsible stewardship—making decisions that create long-term value for customers, shareholders, employees, communities, and future generations.
The organizations that will lead over the next decade won’t treat sustainability as a compliance obligation or a separate ESG initiative. They’ll embed it into operational excellence, innovation, and strategic decision-making because sustainable organizations are ultimately more resilient, more efficient, and better positioned for long-term growth.
Books shape how we think. What book, fiction or non-fiction, has influenced your approach to leadership or decision-making the most?
I am an avid reader and believe that continuous learning is one of the most important responsibilities of any leader. Over the course of my career, I’ve had the privilege of reading a significant body of leadership literature, and many authors have had an impact on my thinking and leadership philosophy.
Patrick Lencioni is certainly among them: Books such as The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The Advantage, The Motive, The Ideal Team Player, and Silos, Politics and Turf Wars have reinforced the importance of organizational health, trust, accountability, leadership alignment, and breaking down barriers that prevent teams from achieving shared outcomes.
I’ve also appreciated the perspectives offered by John C. Maxwell on servant leadership and developing others, Gary Klein’s Streetlights and Shadows on executive decision-making in complex and uncertain environments, and Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, which offers thoughtful insights on leadership, resilience, and encouraging people to embrace opportunity.
Collectively, these authors have reinforced lessons I’ve experienced throughout more than 20 years of leading transformation across financial services, healthcare, and global technology organizations. They all point to the same conclusion: successful transformation begins with leadership. Technology is a powerful enabler, driver, protector, and accelerant, but it is people, trust, organizational health, sound judgment, and a shared purpose that ultimately determine whether transformation delivers lasting value.
Music, art, or sport often teaches lessons we don’t get at work. Which non-technical discipline inspires your problem-solving under pressure?
It’s difficult for me to choose just one because music, art, and sport have each shaped how I think in different ways.
Music has always been a part of my life. I enjoy almost every genre, although I often find myself gravitating toward instrumental music because it allows me to think, reflect, and focus. I’ve frequently used the analogy of an orchestra when describing leadership. An orchestra succeeds not because one musician plays louder than everyone else, but because every individual understands both their own contribution and how it fits into something much larger. That’s exactly how I view enterprise transformation. Leadership isn’t about playing every instrument—it’s about creating the conditions where people can perform together in harmony toward a shared purpose.
Art has influenced me in a very different way. I enjoy visiting museums and galleries, and several of our close friends are artists, so I’ve come to appreciate both classical and contemporary art, from paintings to sculptures. Art reminds me that two people can look at the same piece and see something entirely different. That has reinforced the importance of curiosity, listening, and valuing diverse perspectives—qualities that are just as important in leadership as they are in creativity.
Sports have taught me something else entirely. I’m drawn to sports where the pace is fast and decisions matter—ice hockey, American football, soccer, and basketball, for example. They reinforce the importance of preparation, teamwork, adaptability, and making sound decisions under pressure. In leadership, just as in sport, you rarely have perfect information. You rely on preparation, trust your team, adjust as circumstances change, and keep moving toward a common objective.
When I step back, all three have shaped my approach to leadership in complementary ways. Music reminds me of the power of collaboration, art encourages me to seek different perspectives, and sport reinforces the importance of disciplined execution. Together, they’ve taught me that successful transformation isn’t driven by technology alone—it’s achieved when diverse people, ideas, and capabilities come together in pursuit of a shared vision.
What is your biggest goal? Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?
If you’d asked me that question twenty years ago, I probably would have talked about the next promotion or the next leadership role. Today, my answer is very different.
What motivates me now is impact.
I want to help shape how organizations navigate one of the most significant technological transformations in history. Artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, and digital innovation will redefine every industry, but technology alone won’t determine success – Leadership will.
Whether I’m serving as an executive, advising boards, contributing to public policy, or mentoring the next generation of leaders, I want to help organizations build trust alongside innovation. My goal isn’t simply to help companies adopt new technologies—it’s to help them build the leadership, governance, and culture that enable those technologies to create lasting value.
When I truly retire, I hope my legacy is not defined by position or authority, but by the opportunities I created, the people I developed, and the lives I influenced along the way. If I helped individuals, teams, and communities navigate change with confidence, integrity, and purpose, then I will have achieved something far more meaningful than any title could represent.
If you could leave one message for the next generation of transformation leaders, what would it be?
If I could leave the next generation of transformation leaders with one piece of advice, it would be this: define success on your own terms, not by someone else’s spotlight.
Leadership isn’t about always standing in the brightest light. Sometimes leadership calls for a spotlight, but more often it calls for creating an environment where others can thrive. I’ve always been more comfortable with what I would describe as the “warm, inviting light”—the kind that brings people together, builds trust, encourages collaboration, and helps others succeed. In my experience, the most effective leaders aren’t focused on being the center of attention; they’re focused on creating the conditions for others to do their very best work.
I’d also encourage leaders to be intentional about the careers they’re building. It’s easy to become consumed by promotions, titles, or climbing the corporate ladder, but every so often it’s worth pausing to ask yourself whether your ladder is leaning against the right building? Success achieved in pursuit of the wrong purpose rarely feels like success at all.
Your technical expertise may open doors, but your character, integrity, judgment, and the way you treat people will define your leadership. Stay curious. Keep learning. Listen more than you speak. Have the courage to make principled decisions, even when they’re difficult.
At the end of your career, people are unlikely to remember every project you delivered or every title you held. They will remember how you made them feel, whether they trusted you, whether you helped them grow, and whether you left your organization stronger than you found it. To me, that’s what leadership is truly about.