CEO of American Express Plans to Resign Next Year
James D. Robinson III will step down as chief executive officer of American Express Co. as soon as a successor is found sometime next year, a company spokesman said Saturday.
Robinson, CEO for 15 years, will remain on the 19-member American Express board, said Mike O’Neill, a spokesman and vice president of American Express.
O’Neill was responding to a Fortune magazine report, to be published in Wednesday’s issue, that says Robinson, 57, was “compelled” to develop a succession plan by outside directors.
“This is not a coup,” O’Neill said. “Fortune is giving this a tone of imminence. Jim has initiated this, and he said simply that when his successor is found some time next year, he will step down.”
American Express board member Frank Popoff, CEO of Dow Chemical Co., issued a statement saying the change wasn’t the result of a power play.
“This is an orderly succession process initiated and led by Jim,” Popoff said. “To characterize it in any other way is totally inaccurate. It is intended to ensure the very best in future leadership for American Express.”
“I am pleased with the momentum under way at American Express,” Robinson said in a statement to Fortune. “While there is more work to be done, I believe the time for a change in leadership is coming.”
In its report, Fortune said: “Robinson’s departure was dictated by the board of directors of American Express in a quiet coup that began last September.”
“The boardroom coup was led by former Mobil Chairman Rawleigh Warner Jr.,” the magazine said, noting that Robinson had the support of the board right through last year’s poor performance at the cornerstone unit that includes the American Express card and traveler’s checks.
But as losses mounted, Warner, who at 71 is due to retire from the board, “must have felt that it was time for him to make a difference,” Fortune said.
The magazine said Harvey Golub, former head of American Express’s IDS Financial Services group, is a contender for the CEO job. Golub, 53, was named president of the company last year.
American Express, with assets of $146 billion and revenues of $25.7 billion, ranks second on the Fortune Service 500 list of the largest diversified financial companies.
But it has faced fierce competition in the credit card and brokerage business in recent years. Last year, earnings crashed at the cornerstone unit. Because of the Gulf War, slower spending and higher delinquencies by cardholders, American Express has taken two restructuring charges--$265 million in 1991 and $342 million this fall--to eliminate 6,500 jobs.
