NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 23, 2025--
American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) today announced that Randal K. Quarles and Noel Wallace have been elected to its Board of Directors, effective July 23, 2025. With these appointments, the American Express Board increases to 14 members.
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Mr. Quarles has served as the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of The Cynosure Group, a diversified investment firm, since 2022. He previously served as Vice Chairman for Supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 2017 to 2021, during which time he was also appointed Chair of the Financial Stability Board.
“We are honored to welcome Randy, who brings decades of financial services, public service, financial regulation and private equity experience, to our Board,” said Stephen J. Squeri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at American Express. “As a distinguished leader who helped shape the U.S. financial regulatory framework, as well as the global financial system, he will add invaluable perspectives to American Express.”
Mr. Wallace has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Colgate-Palmolive Company (Colgate-Palmolive), a worldwide consumer products company, since 2019 and Chairman of its Board of Directors since 2020, after being elected to the Board of Directors in 2019.
Mr. Squeri continued “Noel has extensive leadership experience driving the growth and transformation of large-scale business operations and global consumer brands. His international operational acumen, and in-depth branding and marketing expertise will be tremendous assets to support our company’s long runway for growth.”
Mr. Quarles will join the Board’s Nominating, Governance, and Public Responsibility Committee and Risk Committee. Mr. Wallace will join the Board’s Audit and Compliance Committee and Compensation and Benefits Committee.
Randal K. Quarles
Prior to his appointment to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Mr. Quarles was Managing Partner of The Cynosure Group from its founding in 2013 to 2017, and a partner at The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm, from 2007 to 2013. Previously, he served as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2005 to 2006, and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs from 2002 to 2005. During this tenure, Mr. Quarles was the Policy Chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. Earlier in his career, he was the U.S. Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund from 2001 to 2002; a Partner at the international law firm of Davis, Polk & Wardwell from 1993 to 2001; and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions and Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury for Banking Legislation from 1991 to 1993.
Mr. Quarles currently serves on the Supervisory Board of Patomak Global Partners, LLC, a financial services consulting firm, and on the Boards of Directors of Intermountain Health, the largest hospital system in the Mountain West, and GSS UK Services Limited, a UK company providing compliance technology for financial firms. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and his Juris Doctor from Yale University.
Noel Wallace
Mr. Wallace began his career at Colgate-Palmolive in 1987 and progressed through a series of senior management roles around the world, including President and Chief Operating Officer from 2018 to 2019, responsible for all of the operating units worldwide; Chief Operating Officer, Global Innovation & Growth and Hill’s Pet Nutrition from 2016 to 2018; President, Colgate Latin America from 2013 to 2016; President, Colgate North America and Global Sustainability from 2010 to 2013; and other management positions of increasing responsibility at Colgate-Palmolive.
Mr. Wallace previously served on the Board of Directors of Kellanova, formerly known as the Kellogg Company, from 2015 to 2018. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of The Consumer Goods Forum since 2019 and the Board of Trustees of New York Presbyterian Hospital since 2021. Mr. Wallace received his Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas A&M University.
ABOUT AMERICAN EXPRESS
American Express (NYSE: AXP) is a global payments and premium lifestyle brand powered by technology. Our colleagues around the world back our customers with differentiated products, services and experiences that enrich lives and build business success.
Founded in 1850 and headquartered in New York, American Express’ brand is built on trust, security, and service, and a rich history of delivering innovation and Membership value for our customers. With over a hundred million merchant locations across our global network, we seek to provide the world’s best customer experience every day to a broad range of consumers, small and medium-sized businesses, and large corporations.
For more information about American Express, visit americanexpress.com, americanexpress.com/en-us/newsroom/, and ir.americanexpress.com.
Source: American Express Company
Location: Global
American Express Elects Randal K. Quarles and Noel Wallace to Board of Directors
HAMIMA, Syria (AP) — A trickle of civilians left a contested area east of Aleppo on Thursday after a warning by the Syrian military to evacuate ahead of an anticipated government military offensive against Kurdish-led forces.
Government officials and some residents who managed to get out said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces prevented people from leaving via the corridor designated by the military along the main road leading west from the town of Maskana through Deir Hafer to the town of Hamima.
The SDF denied the reports that they were blocking the evacuation.
In Hamima, ambulances and government officials were gathered beginning early in the morning waiting to receive the evacuees and take them to shelters, but few arrived.
Farhat Khorto, a member of the executive office of Aleppo Governorate who was waiting there, claimed that there were "nearly two hundred civilian cars and hundreds of people who wanted to leave” the Deir Hafer area but that they were prevented by the SDF. He said the SDF was warning residents they could face “sniping operations or booby-trapped explosives” along that route.
Some families said they got out of the evacuation zone by taking back roads or going part of the distance on foot.
“We tried to leave this morning, but the SDF prevented us. So we left on foot … we walked about seven to eight kilometers until we hit the main road, and there the civil defense took us and things were good then,” said Saleh al-Othman, who said he fled Deir Hafer with more than 50 relatives.
Yasser al-Hasno, also from Deir Hafer, said he and his family left via back roads because the main routes were closed and finally crossed a small river on foot to get out of the evacuation area.
Another Deir Hafer resident who crossed the river on foot, Ahmad al-Ali, said, “We only made it here by bribing people. They still have not allowed a single person to go through the main crossing."
Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the SDF, said the allegations that the group had prevented civilians from leaving were “baseless.” He suggested that government shelling was deterring residents from moving.
The SDF later issued a statement also denying that it had blocked civilians from fleeing. It said that “any displacement of civilians under threat of force by Damascus constitutes a war crime" and called on the international community to condemn it.
“Today, the people of Deir Hafer have demonstrated their unwavering commitment to their land and homes, and no party can deprive them of their right to remain there under military pressure,” it said.
The Syrian army’s announcement late Wednesday — which said civilians would be able to evacuate through the “humanitarian corridor” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday — appeared to signal plans for an offensive against the SDF in the area east of Aleppo. Already there have been limited exchanges of fire between the two sides.
Thursday evening, the military said it would extend the humanitarian corridor for another day.
The Syrian military called on the SDF and other armed groups to withdraw to the other side of the Euphrates River, to the east of the contested zone. The SDF controls large swaths of northeastern Syria east of the river.
The tensions in the Deir Hafer area come after several days of intense clashes last week in Aleppo city that ended with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters and government forces taking control of three contested neighborhoods.
The fighting broke out as negotiations have stalled between Damascus and the SDF over an agreement reached last March to integrate their forces and for the central government to take control of institutions including border crossings and oil fields in the northeast.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, which was formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkey-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The SDF for years has been the main U.S. partner in Syria in fighting against the Islamic State group, but Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with Kurdish separatist insurgents in Turkey.
Despite the long-running U.S. support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also developed close ties with the government of interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and has so far avoided publicly taking sides in the clashes in Aleppo.
Ilham Ahmed, head of foreign relations for the SDF-affiliated Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria, at a press conference Thursday said SDF officials were in contact with the United States and Turkey and had presented several initiatives for de-escalation. She said that claims by Damascus that the SDF had failed to implement the March agreement were false.
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Associated Press journalist Hogir Al Abdo in Qamishli, Syria, contributed.
Members of the Syrian military police stand at a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Members of the Syrian Civil Defense, stand next to their vehicles at a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A displaced Syrian family rides in the back of a truck near a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army next to a river in the village of Rasm Al-Abboud, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Displaced Syrian children and women ride in the back of a truck near a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Displaced Syrians at a river crossing near the village of Jarirat al Imam, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
