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.