Newsmaker: Amex Hires Techno Captain

<B> Newsmaker: Amex Hires Techno Captain</B>

By Mary Ann McNulty

If you're going to sail into uncharted waters, who better to steer the ship than a veteran of such expeditions? That's the approach American Express took last week when it piped Brigitte Baumann aboard as the new senior vice president and general manager of its Corporate Services Interactive group.

Replacing Mike Mulligan--who left in July to become chief executive of MapQuest parent GeoSystems Global Corp. in Mountville, Pa.--Baumann's job includes globalizing Amex's AXI online booking software, and creating and managing other innovative technologies for travel, expense management and purchasing.

"We see it as a natural extension that we offer end-to-end solutions in expense management, both on procurement and T&E," Baumann said. If necessary, Amex would consider partnering with another company--as it did with Microsoft in developing AXI--to give customers a product that meets all their needs, she said.

More immediately, Baumann's task will be rolling out AXI, the online booking system being implemented at more than 160 U.S. corporations, to Mexico, Canada and then Europe (see story, page 12). Concurrently, the interactive team of 100 employees will be developing ways to accelerate the AXI rollout, both in the number of companies using the product and the penetration of users at each one.

Establishing Corporate Services Interactive three years ago, Mulligan "proved that yes, there is a business model, and one that will work. Now, we're looking at how we can regenerate this business solution, modifying it if necessary," into other markets and market segments like purchasing, Baumann said.

In her new role, she will be drawing on her experience during the past three years as president of Gemplus, U.S. and Canada. The French-based company is a leader in smart card and magnetic stripe technology. Under Baumann's watch, revenues of the U.S. division grew from less than $5 million to more than $50 million, while the number of employees increased from 10 to 550.

Based in New York, she will report to Ed Gilligan, president of Amex Corporate Services. "She has the proven ability to turn vision into reality in the rapid-fire environment of business automation, and she can offer a global perspective that will be invaluable," Gilligan said. Reared in France and the United States, Baumann is fluent in French and English, and knows a fair amount of German.

Before Gemplus, she spent six years with American Express Europe, ending as Corporate Services' vice president of marketing and product development. She began as general manager for both card and travel products in Switzerland. Previously, Baumann served as a consultant for McKinsey & Co. in Asia and Europe, and also worked in chemical engineering, which she said has come in handy in problem solving, processing mapping and analysis in every position she's held.

All of her previous positions had similar business concepts, she noted: standards, crossing chasms and teaching people to use new tools. Now, she looks forward to "leveraging everything I've done in the past to add value to American Express and our customers.