Stephen Squeri

Overview

Stephen Squeri
Born	1959 (age 66–67) Astoria, Queens, New York City, U.S.
Citizenship	United States
Education	Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School
Alma mater	Manhattan College (B.S., M.B.A.)
Occupation	Business executive
Employer	American Express Company
Known for	Chairman and CEO of American Express; digital transformation and global expansion of the company
Title	Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Term	2018–present
Predecessor	Kenneth I. Chenault
Board member of	Partnership for New York City; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; The Valerie Fund; Business Roundtable; The Business Council
Spouse	Tina Squeri
Children	4 daughters
Awards	TIME 100 (2025)

🌍 Stephen J. Squeri (born 1959) is an American business executive who has served as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of American Express Company since 2018, following a career spent entirely within the firm’s ranks. A veteran of the company for more than four decades, he succeeded Kenneth I. Chenault and has overseen a strategy centred on “backing” customers, colleagues and communities while modernising the 19th-century brand for the digital age. Under his leadership American Express has expanded its global card-acceptance network, accelerated digital innovation and pursued long-term co-brand partnerships, while achieving record revenues and cardmember spending. In 2025 he was included in Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world, underscoring his prominence beyond the financial-services industry.

💳 Strategic focus at American Express. As CEO, Squeri has articulated a strategy that seeks to balance continuity with change—protecting American Express’s premium service reputation while re-engineering its products, technology and partnerships for a more digital and globally competitive payments landscape. He has emphasised investment in mobile and data-driven services, the acquisition of digital platforms such as restaurant-reservation provider Resy, and the expansion of lifestyle-oriented benefits that embed American Express cards in cardmembers’ everyday spending and experiences. This agenda has been framed around the company’s long-standing promise to “back” its customers and colleagues, with Squeri presenting brand strength and customer loyalty as central engines of growth.

⭐ Leadership profile and public image. Public commentary has portrayed Squeri as a “home-grown” leader whose style combines traditional work ethic with an emphasis on accessibility and stakeholder responsibility. Profiles have highlighted his long days, his habit of personally responding to large volumes of customer emails, and his advocacy of flexible work arrangements, while noting his involvement in civic organisations and educational causes. Time’s citation in 2025 described him as “magnanimous” and devoted to “growth with purpose”, arguing that his approach flows from a commitment to doing the right thing for customers, employees and the communities American Express serves.

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Early life and education

👶 Family background and upbringing. Stephen J. Squeri was born in 1959 and raised in the Astoria neighbourhood of Queens in New York City, the grandson of Italian and Irish immigrants. His father, Joseph Squeri, worked as an accountant for several major New York–based companies, including Colgate-Palmolive, CBS and Bloomingdale’s, giving the family a solidly middle-class footing while keeping them close to the city’s corporate world. In later interviews Squeri has reflected on how his grandfather arrived in the United States through Ellis Island and how, decades on, his own office window in Lower Manhattan looks out over the same harbour, an image he has invoked as emblematic of his family’s version of the “American dream”.

🎓 Schooling and higher education. Squeri attended Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School in Queens, where he graduated in 1977, was inducted into the National Honor Society and the Spanish Honor Society, and played on the basketball team. He then enrolled at Manhattan College in the Bronx, remaining close to his Queens roots while studying for a Bachelor of Science degree, which he completed in 1981 with a dual major in accounting and computer information systems, followed by an MBA in finance in 1986. He has credited Manhattan College with reinforcing values of purpose-driven leadership and service, later describing the institution as central to his development and noting that both he and his father, an alumnus from the class of 1954, maintained long-standing ties to the college.

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Career

🧭 Early professional career. After completing his undergraduate studies, Squeri joined the accounting and consulting firm Arthur Andersen & Co. in 1981, working for four years as a management consultant and gaining experience with financial-services clients and corporate operations. While finishing his MBA he decided to leave consulting for a corporate role, and in 1985 he entered American Express as a young analyst and manager in the Travelers Cheque Group, a move that would define the rest of his career. Squeri later explained that he was drawn by the company’s culture and the breadth of opportunities it offered, factors that encouraged him to build a long-term career within a single organisation rather than rotate among employers.

🏢 Advancement in merchant and commercial card businesses. During the late 1980s and 1990s, Squeri rose steadily through the ranks at American Express, becoming a vice-president by 1990 and taking on broader responsibilities in its merchant and card businesses. From 2000 to 2002 he served as president of Establishment Services for the United States and Canada, overseeing relationships with the merchants and establishments that accept American Express cards and working to expand the company’s presence in retail and service locations. Between 2002 and 2005 he was president of Global Commercial Card, overseeing corporate card services worldwide and strengthening American Express’s position in corporate payments and travel-and-expense management for business clients.

💻 Chief Information Officer and corporate development roles. In 2005 Squeri was promoted to executive vice-president and chief information officer (CIO) of American Express, an appointment that placed responsibility for the company’s global technology platforms and systems under his leadership. At the same time he headed the Corporate Development unit, directing mergers and acquisitions activity designed to bolster American Express’s capabilities and footprint. The dual role gave him exposure both to back-end infrastructure and to front-end strategic growth initiatives, a combination that observers later suggested equipped him with an unusually holistic understanding of the company’s operations.

📈 Global services and corporate services leadership. In 2009 Squeri became group president of Global Services, taking responsibility for operational areas such as customer servicing, fraud risk management and technology operations across American Express’s worldwide network. Two years later he was named group president of Global Corporate Services, returning him to the business-to-business side of the company and placing him in charge of corporate card, travel and expense management offerings for large and mid-sized enterprises. In these roles he focused on driving efficiency, improving customer experience and deepening relationships with corporate clients, further consolidating his reputation as a versatile executive trusted with both operations and revenue-generating units.

👔 Vice chairman and succession to chief executive. In July 2015 Squeri was elevated to vice chairman of American Express, effectively becoming second-in-command and assuming oversight of the company’s global commercial services and other institutional businesses. His promotion came at a challenging moment, as American Express was dealing with the loss of its long-standing co-brand credit-card partnership with Costco and the sudden death of president Ed Gilligan, who had been viewed as a potential successor to chief executive Kenneth I. Chenault. Against this backdrop, Squeri worked closely with Chenault to stabilise performance and prepare the company for its next phase, and in February 2018 he was appointed chairman and CEO, bringing to the role more than three decades of experience inside American Express.

📱 Digital transformation and product innovation. As chief executive, Squeri has made digital transformation a central pillar of American Express’s strategy, overseeing enhancements to its mobile applications, data-analytics capabilities and customer-facing platforms. The company has rolled out new payment features, expanded person-to-person transfer options and integrated lifestyle services into card propositions, including through the 2019 acquisition of restaurant-reservation platform Resy, which is used to deliver dining benefits to cardmembers. These initiatives have been presented as part of a broader effort to ensure that American Express’s products reflect how customers live and spend in an increasingly digital economy while retaining the high-touch service associated with the brand.

🤝 Partnerships, merchant acceptance and younger customers. Squeri has also prioritised long-term partnerships and broader card acceptance, most notably signing an extension of American Express’s co-brand agreement with Delta Air Lines through 2030, one of the longest such deals in the industry. Under his leadership the company has expanded its relationships with partners such as Marriott and Amazon while working with payment processors and smaller merchants to close historic acceptance gaps with rival card networks. Between 2017 and the mid-2020s American Express reported that the number of merchants accepting its cards globally had increased by nearly fivefold, and Squeri has framed this expansion, alongside a push to appeal to Millennial and Generation Z consumers, as evidence that the brand can be “aspirational, not exclusive”.

💹 Financial performance under his tenure. After a sharp decline in travel and entertainment spending during the COVID-19 pandemic, American Express rebounded under Squeri’s leadership, recording record cardmember spending volumes and revenues as economies reopened. By the early 2020s the company’s annual revenues had roughly doubled compared with 2020 levels, and its share price rose from around US$95 when Squeri took over as CEO to peaks in the US$150–180 range in 2021–2022, outpacing many financial-sector peers over the period. Squeri has attributed this performance to three strategic imperatives—leveraging the existing customer base for new growth, focusing international expansion more selectively and deepening the partner network—combined with an internal shift towards what he describes as an “enterprise-first” mindset.

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Leadership style and management philosophy

🧩 Enterprise-first culture and team orientation. Squeri has repeatedly emphasised the importance of collaboration and a company-wide perspective, arguing that leaders should “care more about the team than yourself” and that success at American Express depends on leveraging the capabilities of the whole organisation. Early in his CEO tenure he abolished rigid performance rankings for business units and individuals, which he believed fostered internal competition at the expense of cooperation, and instead promoted common goals and shared accountability. He also broadened incentive programs so that a wider range of employees, not only senior executives, received bonuses tied to corporate results, a move presented as both an investment in morale and a signal that every employee contributes to the company’s achievements.

⏰ Work ethic and engagement with cardmembers. Accounts of Squeri’s working life describe a demanding schedule that can stretch to 17 hours a day, beginning before 6 a.m. with emails on his commute into Manhattan and often including a brief workout on a stationary bike at American Express’s headquarters. He is noted for walking the floors of the office carrying his own salad to his desk for lunch and for maintaining a visible presence with staff, reinforcing a reputation for accessibility despite the scale of his responsibilities. A distinctive feature of his routine is the time he devotes in the evenings to personally answering between 150 and 200 emails from cardmembers each night, which he has framed as a practical expression of American Express’s self-description as a membership organisation that must listen closely to its customers.

🏠 Approach to hybrid work and workplace flexibility. In the wake of the pandemic, Squeri has been an outspoken advocate of hybrid work arrangements, criticising blanket mandates that require employees to return to the office five days a week when much of their work can be done remotely. Under his leadership American Express introduced the “Amex Flex” model, offering employees a choice among fully virtual, hybrid and fully in-office options and allowing staff to work from locations around the world for limited periods each year. Squeri has argued that office time should be “with purpose”—focused on collaboration and connection rather than virtual meetings that could occur anywhere—and the policy has been cited as a factor in the company’s high rankings on lists of desirable employers in the financial sector.

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Financial compensation and wealth

🧮 Executive compensation and net worth. As the chief executive of a major global financial-services company, Squeri has been among the higher-paid CEOs in the sector, with compensation packages that combine base salary, annual bonuses and long-term equity incentives tied to performance. In 2021 his total compensation was reported at about US$28.5 million, rising to roughly US$48 million in 2022 following a one-time special equity award, a level that produced a CEO-to-median-employee pay ratio of around 972:1 and drew attention in media analyses of executive pay. His 2023 compensation was estimated at approximately US$35.6 million, with his base salary of around US$1.5 million accounting for only a small share of the total, and his personal net worth has been placed in the US$50–60 million range, largely reflecting his holdings of American Express stock, which have been reported at around 191,000 shares.

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Philanthropy and civic engagement

🏛️ Board memberships and civic roles. Outside his formal duties at American Express, Squeri has taken on a variety of board and advisory positions in business and civic organisations, reflecting an interest in economic development and community health. He has served on the board of directors of the Partnership for New York City and is a member of the Business Roundtable and The Business Council, groups that bring together chief executives to discuss public policy and corporate governance. He has also sat on the boards of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and The Valerie Fund, a charity supporting children with cancer and blood disorders, using his profile to support fundraising and advocacy efforts.

🎁 Support for education and charitable fundraising. Squeri has maintained close ties to Manhattan College and his former high school, serving on their boards of trustees and participating in mentorship and alumni programmes. In 2021 he and his family donated US$10 million to Manhattan College, one of the largest gifts in the institution’s history, which helped finance campus improvements and led to the naming of Squeri Hall in honour of the family. Explaining the donation, he stated that the college had instilled in him the importance of leading a purpose-driven life by empowering others and giving back, a theme that is echoed in his support for scholarship initiatives and his long-standing role in chairing charity golf tournaments for causes such as The Valerie Fund and other community organisations.

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Personal life

🏡 Family and personal interests. Squeri and his wife, Tina, live in New Jersey, close to New York City, and they have four daughters. Biographical notes describe him as maintaining a relatively low public profile outside work, with free time devoted largely to family activities and charitable engagements. He is an enthusiastic golfer and has used the sport as a vehicle for fundraising, while colleagues and friends have characterised him as approachable and grounded, qualities that have reinforced his long-standing ties to the New York metropolitan area and its civic institutions.

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Controversies and challenges

⚖️ Diversity, equity and inclusion debates. Under Squeri’s leadership, American Express expanded its diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives, particularly after the racial-justice protests of 2020, with programmes that included mandatory training and public statements opposing racism and promoting an inclusive workplace. These initiatives drew praise from many employees and external observers but also provoked criticism from some conservative commentators, including activist Christopher Rufo, who argued that elements of the company’s training materials were “racially divisive” and labelled the programme “Un-American Express”. In 2022 a former employee filed a lawsuit alleging that the company’s emphasis on diversity had led to discrimination against white staff, claims that American Express rejected; the case contributed to broader public debate about corporate DE&I strategies rather than focusing on Squeri personally.

📊 Investor scrutiny of inclusion initiatives. From another angle, some shareholders and advocacy groups pressed the company to provide greater transparency on the effectiveness of its inclusion programmes, arguing that public statements about equity should be supported by measurable outcomes. At the 2021 annual general meeting a majority of shareholders supported a resolution filed by the non-profit As You Sow requesting a report on the effectiveness of American Express’s DE&I efforts, despite management’s recommendation that investors vote against the proposal. The group warned that without clear metrics there was a risk of “woke-washing”, in which companies make sweeping commitments without adequately tracking progress, and American Express subsequently agreed to enhance its disclosures on workforce diversity and related metrics.

📜 Merchant fees and antitrust litigation. American Express’s long-standing business model of charging relatively high merchant discount rates and restricting merchants from steering customers towards rival cards has periodically attracted legal and regulatory scrutiny, a challenge that has continued during Squeri’s tenure. In March 2024 a group of around 5,000 merchants filed a proposed class-action lawsuit in the United States accusing the company of anticompetitive conduct, alleging that its contractual “non-discrimination” rules prevented merchants from encouraging customers to use lower-fee cards and thereby inflated costs for small businesses. The plaintiffs claimed that swipe fees could absorb a large share of a small proprietor’s profits and argued that American Express had previously frustrated attempts at arbitration by declining to pay required fees; the company stated that it would vigorously defend its network model and the value it provides to cardmembers and merchants.

✈️ Customer reactions to partner programme changes. In 2023 American Express’s close partnership with Delta Air Lines drew criticism from some cardmembers after Delta announced changes to its SkyMiles loyalty programme that made it more difficult for frequent fliers to attain elite status. Holders of American Express Platinum and co-branded Delta cards expressed concern that the perceived value of their cards would decline, prompting questions to Squeri about the potential impact on spending and retention. He responded that the company had not seen evidence of meaningful business deterioration linked to the changes and emphasised the long-term strength of the Delta-AmEx relationship; Delta later adjusted elements of the programme following feedback, illustrating the sensitivity of co-brand arrangements to customer sentiment.

🗳️ Political spending and corporate values. Following the storming of the United States Capitol on 6 January 2021 and the refusal of some members of Congress to certify the 2020 presidential election results, American Express announced under Squeri’s leadership that its political action committee would suspend donations to lawmakers who had voted against certification. In a message to employees, Squeri argued that efforts to undermine the democratic process did not align with the company’s values, linking its approach to political giving with broader commitments to stability, trust and responsible corporate citizenship. The decision placed American Express among a group of major corporations that reassessed their political contributions after the events in Washington, and it highlighted the extent to which large financial institutions can become embroiled in debates about the role of business in public life.

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Honours and recognition

🏅 Recognition and assessment. In April 2025 Time magazine named Squeri to its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, with Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian writing the accompanying profile and praising his combination of clear strategic vision, partnership-driven growth and commitment to serving customers and communities. Commentators have also highlighted his trajectory from a Queens high-school student to the chief executive of a global financial institution, noting that he built his entire post-consulting career at American Express and frequently cites his family’s immigrant story as a reminder of the opportunities afforded by education and perseverance. While assessments of his legacy will depend on how American Express navigates competitive, regulatory and technological shifts in the years ahead, many observers credit Squeri with reinforcing the company’s traditional strengths of brand trust and service while steering it towards a more digital, globally diversified and stakeholder-oriented future.

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