Jennifer Skyler 

Chief Corporate Affairs Officer 
American Express
US

Jennifer Skyler joined American Express as chief corporate affairs officer in 2019 after four years leading communications at WeWork, growing the function from the ground up through the company’s heyday. In her role at American Express, she oversees global public affairs and media relations, social media, colleague communications, reputational risk management, and corporate social responsibility. Skyler has led initiatives centered around the company addressing some of today’s most pressing issues — diversity & inclusion, climate change and the wellbeing of small businesses among them.

Skyler launched the company’s first ESG strategy and steered American Express’s efforts to help small businesses recover from the Covid pandemic, including a $1 million grant program in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to support historic and culturally significant restaurants in their recovery. Skyler’s corporate affairs and communications function played a key role in creating the Coalition to Back Black Businesses, a collaboration between American Express, the US Chamber of Commerce and the nation’s four leading Black Chambers, to award $10 million to support Black-owned small business recovery in the US over four years.

At WeWork, Skyler built a multi-disciplinary department that included communications, government relations, public affairs, strategic events, brand, and social impact. Before this, Skyler launched and oversaw Facebook's consumer communications and data science teams and was responsible for the press strategy around key products and partnerships that encompassed news, sports, entertainment, and social good. She also worked at Polyvore, a company acquired by Yahoo, where she was the first public relations hire, leading their communications and marketing strategies.

Skyler began her career in newsrooms, first at CNN, where she started as an executive assistant and rose through the ranks to become a White House producer.