John Hayes

John Hayes is the former chief marketing officer of American Express. For more than 20 years, John oversaw American Express's marketing efforts worldwide, shaping both the company and its brand to enjoy a period of unprecedented business growth.

In tandem with chief executive Ken Chenault, John helped American Express create more than 200 product launches, including the coveted Centurion Black card, the industry-leading Blue card, and the revolutionary service-based payment product Serve from American Express. During this time the company also reoriented itself from a card company to a service corporation as it built an unrivaled enterprise-wide ecosystem of companies and divisions designed to maximize the potential of complementary relationships and partnerships

John architected the introduction of American Express as the founding sponsor of the Tribeca Film Festival, created to revitalize and bring business and energy back to Lower Manhattan after the events of September 11, 2001. In 2006 he was one of the creators of the (RED) campaign, a revolutionary marketing effort to address the AIDS emergency in Africa.

John has been recognized for his contributions to business and the community on numerous occasions. He was named the 2010 Corporate Marketing Executive of the Year by the Delaney Report, received the 2009 Global Leadership Award from the UJA-Federation of New York, and was honored with the 2007 Distinguished Citizenship Award from the John A. Reisenbach Foundation. John's pioneering work also resulted in his receiving an Emmy Award in 2007 from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and numerous Cannes Lions awards, including two Grand Prix awards in 2012. In 2016 he was inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame.