Bank of America’s top tech leader Cathy Bessant named a new right-hand exec to help oversee more than 95,000 employees

• Sumeet Chabria, Bank of America’s head of global business services, is now also COO of global tech and ops.
• Chabria reports directly to the bank’s Chief Operations and Technology Officer Cathy Bessant.
• Bessant tapped Chabria after Kieth Cockrell was promoted to President of Bank of America Charlotte.

Bank of America’s top tech executive has a new right-hand man.

Cathy Bessant, Bank of America’s chief operations and technology officer, recently promoted Sumeet Chabria to COO of global tech and operations.

Chabria, who will also maintain his role as head of global business services, will serve as Bessant’s de-facto chief of staff, helping to run her centralized technology leadership team of nine, Insider has learned.

In his expanded role, Chabria is responsible for technical operations across all eight business lines, data governance, core infrastructure services, and information security.

He’s tasked with ensuring an effective operating environment for the 95,000 employees across 35 countries under Bessant. Other responsibilities include overseeing regulatory and business controls across all of Bank of America’s global tech and operations, according to a Bank of America spokesperson who confirmed the promotion.

“He is uniquely positioned to bring a global perspective and to advance many of our strategic business and operational commitments,” Bessant told Insider in an emailed statement.

Chabria succeeds Kieth Cockrell, who in May was named president of Bank of America Charlotte, the home market for the nation’s second-largest bank by assets.

“Innovation and operational excellence have to be intransigently connected,” Chabria told Insider in June. “When we have an opportunity to improve operational excellence through digital capabilities, we innovate to get us there.”

Chabria will continue to run global business services for the bank, a role he has held for several years. In addition to running the bank’s India-based tech operations, Chabria is responsible for 23,000 employees and several thousand partners that provide technology, operation and business capabilities for the bank.

Informally, Chabria is also the AI expert on Bessant’s leadership team. He often represents the bank at AI-focused forums, whether with branches of the US government or as a member of Harvard University’s Council for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence.

Chabria joined Bank of America in 2015 from HSBC, where he spent more than 19 years and last served as the British bank’s CIO for global banking and markets, overseeing more than 10,000 employees across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Before that, he was a tech consultant for some of Wall Street’s biggest names, including Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Bridgewater.