Edward Gilligan, BS '82
President, American Express
Edward Gilligan, President of American Express, can trace his long and successful tenure at the financial services company to one fateful moment during his days as an undergraduate at NYU Stern: when he spied an American Express posting on a campus job board. He applied to and landed the two-week assignment. Those two weeks led to a six-month temporary job, then to a part-time job, and finally to a fulltime position upon graduation.
Gilligan, a Brooklyn native, had taken a year off after high school to work and give serious thought to his future. Once he decided to embark on a business career, the idea of attending Stern and continuing to work part-time made complete sense, he explained: “I loved going to school in the Village, and it was close to where I worked. I could tell in that moment that the education I was getting was relevant to what I was doing. By the time I graduated, I felt really well prepared. My experience at NYU Stern made me sure about what I wanted to do and got me off to a great start at an incredible company. It changed the trajectory of my professional and personal life.”
Gilligan attributes his success largely to his ability to adapt to change and his willingness to turn any challenge into an opportunity. There has been no shortage of either change or adversity during his 30-year run at the company, although the first crisis to really test his mettle as a manager was 9/11. Headquartered across the street from the World Trade Center, Gilligan’s division lost 11 employees in the tragedy. The challenge of dealing with the emotional trauma, coupled with the physical loss of the office, was only intensified in the aftermath by the immediate business ramifications. He recalled: “I ran the corporate-card and travel business, and there was a hit taken by the travel industry. I had to help rebuild the business and deal with the loss of employees – that was very difficult. And we had to find work space for 5,000 people within a couple of weeks. There is no playbook for something like that.”
The recession of 2008, a crisis of a different nature, was the second defining moment of Gilligan’s career and a turning point for American Express. Like the rest of the banking world, American Express had to reassess its role in what was suddenly a vastly different environment. In this new era of economic uncertainty, increased regulation, and technology that is rapidly changing consumer behavior, Gilligan has rallied his team to embrace change, not fight it. Now, he maintains, the 163-year-old company has never been in better shape. He has pushed American Express, no longer competing solely with other credit card providers, to transform its culture into one of innovation. He has helped the company reinvent itself through unique partnerships with companies like Delta Airlines, Facebook, Twitter, and Apple, and has managed to help it stay relevant by finding interesting solutions to customers’ everyday problems. Case in point: New York City taxi riders can now pay their fares with American Express Membership Rewards points. Gilligan sums up his and the company’s positive outlook: “This is a great company. We exist to make our customers successful.”
Gilligan, a Brooklyn native, had taken a year off after high school to work and give serious thought to his future. Once he decided to embark on a business career, the idea of attending Stern and continuing to work part-time made complete sense, he explained: “I loved going to school in the Village, and it was close to where I worked. I could tell in that moment that the education I was getting was relevant to what I was doing. By the time I graduated, I felt really well prepared. My experience at NYU Stern made me sure about what I wanted to do and got me off to a great start at an incredible company. It changed the trajectory of my professional and personal life.”
Gilligan attributes his success largely to his ability to adapt to change and his willingness to turn any challenge into an opportunity. There has been no shortage of either change or adversity during his 30-year run at the company, although the first crisis to really test his mettle as a manager was 9/11. Headquartered across the street from the World Trade Center, Gilligan’s division lost 11 employees in the tragedy. The challenge of dealing with the emotional trauma, coupled with the physical loss of the office, was only intensified in the aftermath by the immediate business ramifications. He recalled: “I ran the corporate-card and travel business, and there was a hit taken by the travel industry. I had to help rebuild the business and deal with the loss of employees – that was very difficult. And we had to find work space for 5,000 people within a couple of weeks. There is no playbook for something like that.”
The recession of 2008, a crisis of a different nature, was the second defining moment of Gilligan’s career and a turning point for American Express. Like the rest of the banking world, American Express had to reassess its role in what was suddenly a vastly different environment. In this new era of economic uncertainty, increased regulation, and technology that is rapidly changing consumer behavior, Gilligan has rallied his team to embrace change, not fight it. Now, he maintains, the 163-year-old company has never been in better shape. He has pushed American Express, no longer competing solely with other credit card providers, to transform its culture into one of innovation. He has helped the company reinvent itself through unique partnerships with companies like Delta Airlines, Facebook, Twitter, and Apple, and has managed to help it stay relevant by finding interesting solutions to customers’ everyday problems. Case in point: New York City taxi riders can now pay their fares with American Express Membership Rewards points. Gilligan sums up his and the company’s positive outlook: “This is a great company. We exist to make our customers successful.”