Robert Alexander on leadership

About Robert Alexander

Rob Alexander, Chief Information Officer at Capital One, has spoken publicly about his personal background and leadership philosophy, as well as the company’s technology strategy. In a 2025 talk, Alexander recounted losing sight in his right eye at age 13 after a classmate’s ruler struck him, and described the subsequent loss of his father and his family’s move to Canada. He said these experiences taught him “discipline, determination, and gave me greater sight called insight,” and that “before you can lead others, you must first learn to lead yourself.” He stated that “leadership is not about a corner office or a title” and that “the world does not need more leaders with perfect vision” but rather those who encourage and inspire others. In a 2024 panel discussion, Alexander discussed Capital One’s approach to artificial intelligence and data strategy. He said the company has been “long-term users of machine learning” and that its “founding principle was an information-based strategy.” He noted that Capital One began moving to the cloud “in earnest in 2015” and by 2020 had “rebuilt all of our applications to be cloud-native on AWS and closed our last data center.” He described the company’s investment in a generative AI platform to enable multiple use cases and reuse of capabilities. In a 2020 interview, Alexander said he had been at Capital One for 22 years and had never interviewed for another job, attributing his tenure to “working with really fantastic people to do things that no one thought was possible.” In a 2015 keynote, he described Capital One as “a founder-led 20-year-old technology company and the nation’s largest digital bank,” and said the company was using AWS to reduce its data center count from eight to three by 2018.

Profile compiled from Robert Alexander's verified public interviews and appearances. See all quotes & transcripts →