Jennifer Skyler is the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at American Express. In this role, she oversees public affairs and media relations, social media, colleague communications, reputational risk management and corporate social responsibility. She is a member of the Company’s Executive Committee, as well as Chairperson of the American Express Foundation.
At American Express, Skyler launched the company’s first Environmental, Governance and Social (ESG) Strategy and Framework, which encompasses three core pillars: Promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI); Build Financial Confidence; and Advance Climate Solutions. This strategy was released in the company’s first ESG Report in the fall of 2020.
Additionally, to help small businesses as they recovered from the economic effects of the pandemic, Skyler and her team launched the Backing Historic Restaurants campaign, a $1 million grant program in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to support historic and culturally significant restaurants navigate the pandemic and shift toward recovery. Skyler’s Corporate Affairs & Communications function also played a key role in creating the Coalition to Back Black Businesses, a collaboration between American Express, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the nation’s four leading Black Chambers – the National Black Chamber of Commerce, National Business League, Walker’s Legacy and U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. – to award $10 million to support Black-owned small business recovery in the U.S. over the next four years. The program has supported more than 600 businesses to date.
Prior to American Express, Skyler served as Chief Communications Officer at WeWork, where she built a multi-disciplinary department that included communications, government relations, public affairs, strategic events, brand, and social impact. Before this, she 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 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. After working with Norah O’Donnell at MSNBC, Skyler became an anchor producer at the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. At CBS, she was part of the team that was nominated for two Emmy Awards and won the Alfred I. duPont Award for political coverage during the 2008 election.
A graduate of the University of Michigan, Skyler majored in Communications Studies with a concentration in Japanese. She serves on the University of Michigan’s Tri-State NextGen Leadership Council, is a member of the Institute for Public Relations Board of Directors, is on the National Trust for Historic Preservation Board of Trustees, sits on the Board of All in Together, and is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society.
A native of Flint, Michigan, Skyler lives in New York City with her husband, Ed, and their three children.