When a company places a lawyer at the intersection of product, partnerships, and strategy, it is quietly admitting that the next frontier of growth is not purely technical — it is institutional. GitLab's appointment of Thomas Lloyd as Chief Business and Legal Officer reflects a maturing recognition that artificial intelligence, however powerful, must be governed before it can be fully monetized. In an era when enterprise customers are asking harder questions about compliance, liability, and pricing, the companies that answer those questions credibly may outlast those that simply build faster.