Executive is gloomy about rising corruption (8)
I believe the answer is:
director
'executive' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'gloomy about rising corruption' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'about' could be 're' ('re' means regarding or about) and 're' is found in the answer.
'rising' could be 'tor' (I've seen this before) and 'tor' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'is' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for director that I've seen before include "leader" , "Record it (anag.)" , "Controller of production or member of a board" , "Company board member" , "He guides and shapes a play or film" .)