If you could make changes, how would you improve the culture at American Express?

I would move it more towards a meritocracy, and I would put technical leadership through a crucible of technical assessments to determine if they are qualified to be in the position. Amex believes that technical leadership (Directors and higher) should rely on the technical competence of their direct reports, but I observed a serious lack of competence in several leaders in my org-chart, which resulted in poor business and technology choices.

Find a way to create a level playing field for all parties to give employees the confidence that growth isn't going to be shunted because of politics or brown-nosing by their peers.

Empower employees to make decisions and provide some stability without constant changes. And get rid of the bell curve to force people into a 3 even if they’ve done a good job.

There’s a lot of bureaucracy and passive aggressiveness in the management style. There are definitely “popular” employees that receive better treatment than others.

Stop living on a name and start competing. Sort the awful technology problems and make some decisions that fit with a global company.

Focus more on skill set and meritocracy - a lot of success is being good at the politics

Root out as many imposters in technology as possible and there are so many