Learn, Grow, and Lead the Way with American Express New York

Simone Hoyte is the Head of the Enterprise Data Strategy team within Credit and Fraud Risk at American Express; her team is focused on evaluating, integrating, and rationalizing American Express’ data assets, globally, to drive elevated risk decisions and customer experiences across the credit and fraud lifecycles. She also plays a critical data governance role as Chair to the Global Credit Bureau Committee of American Express National Bank and is responsible for the company’s credit bureau data exchange ecosystem.

Simone’s career spans 20+ years in financial services, starting out at PricewaterhouseCoopers in consulting and client services, shaping her results-driven leadership style and analytical sophistication. Simone then worked for nearly a decade at American Express in various roles in audit and credit risk. Before returning to American Express in 2020, Simone spent five years as a risk, strategy, and product professional at JPMorgan & Chase, where she focused on digital payments, re-engineering, and business credit risk within the retail banking space.

Kylea Boward was appointed Vice President & General Manager, Global Client Group (GCG) in January 2020, leading the U.S. Online & Retail team to secure card acceptance, grow charge volume, drive incremental revenue, as well as broaden and deepen client relationships with Amex’s largest global accounts including Amazon, Google, Meta, Apple, Walmart, Dell & Microsoft.

Kylea joined GCG from the U.S. Small Merchant Partner Acquisition & Management team where she led strategy, negotiations, and performance management for OptBlue merchant acquirers and over 150 strategic partner accounts, coupled with delivering multichannel re-engagement campaigns that encouraged welcome acceptance among existing merchants, while also securing new merchant acceptance through the OptBlue program.

Prior to joining U.S. Small in 2017, Kylea was Vice President of Partnerships & Marketing for Merchant Financing where her responsibilities included negotiating strategic partnership deals with U.S. payment processors, deploying a national field sales team, and collaborating with client managed groups in merchant and corporate divisions.

Kylea started her career with Amex 18 years ago in the Sydney office. Before relocating to the U.S. in 2013, she held several cross-functional roles in International Consumer where she negotiated, launched, and subsequently led the David Jones Cobrand & Strategic Alliance, along with three airline cobrand cards with Qantas, Virgin Velocity and Air New Zealand.

Before joining Amex, Kylea began her career in tourism at Radisson Hotels & Air New Zealand launching frequency programs and direct marketing efforts in Australia. Kylea then transitioned to financial services leading direct marketing & strategic partnerships in health insurance, automotive clubs, and Transamerica Insurance Marketing.

Kylea holds an Advanced Marketing Diploma and Change Management certification and lives in the heart of New York City near Union Square.

Tony is Head of Digital Workplace for American Express, based out of New York. In this role he is responsible for the strategy, engineering, delivery, and support of digital workplace services for all American Express colleagues. He joined American Express from Morgan Stanley in 2022.

Tony has spent the majority of his career within the Financial Services industry, previously holding roles at institutions such as Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Société Générale, Instinet, and Island ECN. He has held roles spanning Technology Infrastructure, End User Computing, Software Engineering, and Cybersecurity over the course of his career.

Tony's contributions to technology have been recognized with the HITEC 100 award, celebrating the 100 most influential Hispanics in the field. He is also known for his mentorship in the HITEC Emerging Executive program.

Tony graduated with a BA in Psychology from Binghamton University. He lives in Westchester, NY with his wife and son. In his free time, he enjoys reading, cycling and gardening.

Robert serves as EVP, Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer of American Express. His focus is to continue to drive an inclusive mindset and set of behaviors deeper into how American Express operates across Colleagues, Customers, and the Communities we serve. Robert has been with Amex for 39 years, and has been instrumental in shaping culture, building capabilities; focusing on results and ensuring different experiences are heard and valued. Robert spearheaded the execution of our global $1B Public Commitment to DEI, which included increasing supplier spending with underrepresented-owned suppliers, expanding access to capital and financial education and partnering with non-profit organizations focused on providing more equitable outcomes. Through his leadership, AXP met its initial goal ahead of schedule and has committed to investing an additional $3 billion toward DE&I initiatives globally through 2025. This brings the total to $4B. Outside of his day to day role, Robert remains committed to education by serving on the Advisory Board of the nonprofit organization Determined to Educate and active member of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC) with a focus on advancing the role and contributions of black executives and preparing the next generation of corporate leaders.