American
Express global corporate payments head Anré Williams will run the company's
global merchant services unit as part of a management restructuring announced last week. He replaced Bill
Glenn, who takes on responsibility for both global corporate payments and
business travel. In January, Kim Goodman will replace American Express Global
Business Travel president Charles Petruccelli.
Whereas
Goodman will report to Glenn—who reports to CIO and group president for global
services Steve Squeri—Petruccelli has been reporting to American Express
chairman and CEO Ken Chenault. In an interview published Monday by The Beat,
Petruccelli said, "Kim will report to Bill Glenn, who will merge business
travel and corporate card. Merging business travel and corporate card—two
products being so complementary and having the same customer base—makes a lot
of sense from a synergy point of view. At the same time, when you bring the two
businesses together, travel is such a specific business—and different from a
payment solutions business—that
you really want a leader who focuses only on travel. That's the role Kim will
have, working very closely with Bill.
"I
was operating in an autonomous way, and Ken felt very comfortable with
that," Petruccelli added. "I think it allowed him also to bring in
very senior talent, learning all the other aspects of the American Express
portfolio of businesses."
In
a written statement, Chenault noted that Williams has been responsible for
"several important deals," including Amex's acquisition of GE's corporate payment business and its investment in Concur.