Mike O'Neill | Influence 100
Michael-O'Neill

Michael O’Neill 

SVP, corporate affairs and communications 
American Express 
@minkoneil

From addressing the causes and effects of the global economic crisis to defending American Express against retailers’ charges of anti-competitive to burnishing the company’s brand among high net worth Americans, Michael O’Neill has plenty of his plate as senior vice president of communications at the financial services giant. 

In that role, O’Neill heads the company’s communications group and is a member of the American Express global management team, serving as the company’s principal spokesman and supervising media relations; employee, online and shareholder communications. 

O’Neill joined American Express in 1991 from Shearson Lehman Brothers, where he had been senior vice president, corporate affairs and communications. Earlier, he had worked for Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company in New York. Active in the public relations industry, O’Neill is a former chairman of the Public Relations Seminar and The Wisemen, an organization of senior public relations executives founded in New York in 1938.