Organization Announcement: American Express

The following announcement is based on an internal note to American Express employees from Stephen J. Squeri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer:

I am writing to let you know that Eduardo Ramos, executive vice president and chief auditor, is leaving American Express. As some of you may know, Eduardo has been on leave for personal reasons for the last few weeks. I'd like to thank him for his service and his contributions over his 10 years at the company, during which time the dedicated professionals in the Internal Audit Group strengthened the control, compliance and risk management framework of the company.

Alan Gallo, currently executive vice president of Global Business Services (GBS), has been named chief audit executive and head of the Internal Audit Group, succeeding Eduardo, effective immediately. Alan will report directly to me and to the Audit and Compliance Committees of the boards of both American Express Company and American Express National Bank. In this role, he will become a member of the company's Executive Committee and be responsible for providing strategic leadership to the EC and to the company and bank boards on internal and external audit, compliance and risk matters, as well as leading the team responsible for implementing our global audit program.

Alan is an outstanding choice to take on this important role as head of our internal auditing function. A veteran of over 30 years at the company, Alan has held a number of leadership positions that have given him a deep understanding of virtually all of the company's businesses. For much of his career, Alan was in Finance, serving in a number of senior roles across our businesses, which included being chief financial officer at various times for the Consumer, Commercial Services and former Enterprise Growth businesses, as well as the company's shared services functions including Technology, GBS and our global customer service operations. Alan also headed Corporate Planning and led our company wide business transformation initiatives in 2016 and 2017 which streamlined and repositioned our operating expense base to support our growth strategy going forward. Most recently, as head of GBS, Alan has overseen key functions that support all of our businesses globally, including Procurement and Supplier Management, Real Estate and Workplace Services, training for our Customer Care Professionals, Sales and Business Enablement, and Enterprise Strategy & Execution, a team that provides counsel and support for cross-functional business transformation initiatives.

Alan is an exceptional leader and a person of high integrity who has demonstrated, time and again over his three decades at American Express, that he has the company's back through both good and challenging times. He is known throughout the company as a great developer of people who inspires his team to give their all, lead with honesty and transparency, and always act with an enterprise first mindset.

Paul Fabara, president of the Global Services Group, will announce new leadership for GBS shortly. In the interim, all of Alan's direct reports will report to Paul.

I want to recognize and thank Denise Pickett, our chief risk officer, for taking on additional oversight of the Internal Audit Group during Eduardo's absence. I am grateful for her leadership and her willingness to take on this assignment with her typical energy and commitment. I also want to thank the entire Internal Audit team for consistently delivering outstanding counsel and support to colleagues across the business. Their dedication to ensuring that we maintain strong control and compliance programs throughout the company is critically important to our overall reputation and to delivering on our brand promise of establishing relationships built on trust, security and service.