Stephen Squeri

Stephen "Steve" Joseph Squeri was born in 1959 in New York City. He is the grandchild of Italian and Irish immigrants. His father worked as an accountant in New York for companies such as Colgate, CBS, and Bloomingdale's. Squeri grew up in Astoria, Queens, graduating from Monsignor McClancy High School in East Elmhurst in 1977. Squeri subsequently attended Manhattan College in the Bronx, graduating with a bachelor of science in 1981 and an MBA in 1986.

Beginning in 1981, Squeri spent four years as a management consultant at Arthur Andersen.

Squeri joined American Express in 1985 as a manager in the Travelers Cheque Group and became an American Express vice president in 1990. From 2000 to 2002 he served as president of the Establishment Services group in the United States and Canada, and from 2002 to 2005 he was president of the Global Commercial Card division. In 2005, he began serving as chief information officer of American Express. He held the role until October 2009, during which time he also led Corporate Development, overseeing mergers and acquisitions.

In 2009, he was named group president of Global Services. He then served as American Express' group president of Global Corporate Services until 2015. He became vice chairman of American Express in July 2015, and also began leading the business-to-business group in October 2015. According to Forbes, the American Express board of directors began considering Squeri to be CEO in 2015.

Squeri became chairman and CEO of American Express on February 1, 2018, having been appointed by the board of directors to succeed Kenneth Chenault. In 2023, Squeri's total compensation at American Express was $35.6 million, representing a CEO-to-median worker pay ratio of 677-to-1. For 2024, Squeri's total compensation was $37.1 million. In April 2025, TIME named him one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2025.