Steve Faktor
Vice President, Business Growth & Innovation
American Express
Steve Faktor leads Business Growth and Innovation for the Vice Chairman of
American Express. His mission is to create and incubate new businesses. Steve
has created three $100M businesses in digital payments, loyalty, and data
analytics. He has also deployed and managed three enterprise-level innovation
programs and the American Express Chairman’s Innovation Fund. Steve is a
futurist, innovator, and emerging technology expert. He is a popular, global
keynote speaker on the future of business and new growth opportunities. He also
leads innovation workshops and training sessions based on his proprietary 4C's
of InnovationTM methodology. He is the author of the forthcoming book,
EconovationTM: How the Innovator Will Save America, Your Business, and This
Kitten (John Wiley & Sons).
At Amex, Steve launched LoyaltyEdge, Zync, SimpleFX, and Facebook Travel, with
several others planned for 2011. As SVP of Innovation at Citi, Steve drove
fast-track product development and created a revolutionary new retail branch
model. At MasterCard, he developed Commerce Coalition, Commerce Intelligence,
and Spending Pulse. He also re-vamped MasterCard’s product organization and led
the pre-IPO global merchant strategy. As a management consultant for Andersen
and two boutique firms, Steve led strategy, marketing and technology projects
for clients like WPP Group (Ogilvy), Samsung, JVC, Bombardier, Boise Cascade,
Omnicom Group, and PSEG.
Steve has a B.S. in Economics and Accounting from Stern School of Business at
NYU. He is based in New York City and is actively involved in Junior
Achievement, writing, travel, emerging technology, and the arts.