Truist

David McLeod

Digital Leadership Strategist

David McLeod serves as Chief Technology Officer at Truist, where he leads the technology organization supporting one of the largest financial institutions in the United States. Having held senior technology roles at Barings and Bank of America, his career has been shaped by large-scale infrastructure leadership and cloud transformation. His approach has a realistic focus on facilitating corporate advancement while maintaining execution and durability.

Turning Complexity Into Momentum

Banks rarely struggle to identify where they need to evolve. The difficulty lies in delivering change within environments defined by legacy systems, regulatory scrutiny and customers who expect every interaction to work as intended.

At a time when Truist had made technology investment a strategic priority, McLeod took over as the organization's technology chief. His background in managing cloud and infrastructure teams at multinational corporations put him in a position to handle a problem that many financial institutions face. The problem of modernizing without undermining the trust that users have in the services they use on a daily basis.

For technology leaders in banking, progress is measured not only by what is introduced but also by what continues to work reliably in the background.

Building Foundations Teams Can Rely On

The speed at which companies can adapt to shifting business requirements is sometimes determined by infrastructure considerations. Even simple enhancements can stop when platforms become challenging to operate.

McLeod has dedicated a significant portion of his career to building the pillars that underpin delivery. Creating environments where engineering teams can spend more time addressing business needs and less time overcoming technical obstacles has been the emphasis of his leadership in cloud services and infrastructure. Speed is not the goal in and of itself. It is to make it possible for a complex enterprise to execute consistently.

This way of thinking acknowledges an underappreciated aspect of technology leadership. When the systems that support them are scalable, dependable and made to minimize needless friction, teams function at their best.

Staying Close to the Front Line

Leaders must remain connected to those who are advancing technology in order to comprehend how it impacts daily work. McLeod has made a noticeable effort to engage directly with teams around the company since joining Truist. Visits with technology colleagues and front-line employees have given insight into how digital projects affect day-to-day interactions and where significant improvements could have the most impact.

These interactions indicate a leadership approach based on accessibility rather than remoteness.  And communication in both directions is beneficial to large organizations because it enables technological priorities to be influenced by the reality that employees face at work.

Making Reliability a Competitive Advantage

Customers are frequently unaware of the most important technological decisions. They show up as better reactions, reliable services and the assurance that vital systems will function when called upon.

McLeod's ability to link long-term technological aspirations with the practical requirements of execution is what makes him valuable. He shows that modernization works best when it builds trust rather than undermines it by highlighting disciplined infrastructure, cloud competence and interaction with those closest to delivery.

It is this measured approach to advancing technology within a highly regulated environment that underpins David McLeod's recognition among CIOReview's Top 10 CTOs 2026.