President, OPEN from American Express®

Susan Sobbott is President of OPEN from American Express®, the team dedicated exclusively to the success of small business owners and their companies. Susan leads the fastest growing division within American Express.

Appointed to this position in June 2004, Susan is responsible for attracting and retaining business owners to the American Express franchise. OPEN® - which commits itself to making it easier for entrepreneurs to do business; recognizing its customers like the CEOs they are; and solving customers' problems before they exist - is the nation's largest credit and charge card issuer for small businesses. In addition to shaping the OPEN® brand identity, Susan manages the small business charge, lending, and co-brand cards as well as the line-of-credit products that customers need to help grow their business.

Prior to assuming her current role, Susan served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of OPEN®'s Lending and Network Development group. She was responsible for the credit card and line-of-credit businesses as well as business and product development for the group. Susan and her team re-launched the OPEN® Savings program, an automatic-discount benefit that has delivered more than $50 million in savings to business Cardmembers since 2004.

Prior to joining OPEN®, Susan was Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Strategic Alliances and Co-Brand group. She developed and managed business partnerships for U.S. co-brand cards as well as loyalty programs such as the Company's award-winning Membership Rewards program.

Susan is a member of the American Express Global Management Team - a council of top senior leaders who provide strategic direction for the Company. During her 15 year-tenure with American Express, Susan also held a number of leadership positions within the Consumer Card Services Group and Establishment Services.

Susan holds an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University.

A native and current resident of New Jersey, Susan enjoys spending time with a family that includes two precocious young children. Susan is also the daughter of a small business owner - her father owned a trucking business and a messenger service.

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Director, Advocacy Marketing

Michelle Thompson-Dolberry helps OPEN® better serve our customers by delivering a variety of educational and outreach initiatives supporting the success of small business owners. Michelle oversees community-based marketing efforts and strategic alliances with leading women's business associations, including Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence, the National Association of Women Business Owners and the Center for Women's Business Research. She also manages OPEN®'s partnership with Make Mine a Million $ Business®, a national movement inspiring one million women to reach one million dollars in revenue by 2010.

Michelle was previously a director in Human Resources at American Express, where she specialized in employee advocacy, change management and leader effectiveness. Prior to joining American Express, Michelle gained additional HR experience in other financial services organizations, and spent time living and working in London and Paris.

Michelle earned a Bachelor of Arts in French from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently pursuing her MBA from Penn State's Smeal School of Business. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, James, and 2 dogs. She volunteers during the summer and fall season as a junior high school cheerleading coach and has worked with not-for-profit organizations helping students of color, including Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) and Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT).

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Manager, Advocacy Marketing

Sarika Sangwan advocates on behalf of women entrepreneurs nationwide. She manages the Women's Business Initiative from OPEN®, nurtures relationships with women's business associations, develops OPEN®-sponsored events and helps create educational resources.

Prior to American Express, Sarika worked at Ceres, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting corporations in integrating environmental stewardship into their core business strategy. Prior to Ceres, she worked as a business consultant at Peterson Consulting.

Sarika received her BBA from the University of Michigan, an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business and MEM from Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.

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Group Counsel

Anne Robinson is an attorney in the General Counsel's Office of American Express. As Group Counsel to OPEN from American Express®, Anne works with an exciting team of American Express professionals dedicated exclusively to the success of small business owners and their companies.

In this role, Anne is responsible for providing legal support for all OPEN® credit card and charge card products, business loan and line of credit products, loyalty and acquisition partnerships, new product development initiatives, and general marketing. She also provides legal support for human resources and communication initiatives related to OPEN®. Anne's responsibilities also include ensuring OPEN®'s compliance with corporate policies related to truth in lending, equal credit opportunity, fair credit reporting, fair debt collection, electronic fund transfers and signatures, telemarketing sales and other privacy regulations as well as Patriot Act, Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Gramm-Leach Bliley Act compliance.

Prior to joining American Express, Anne spent three years at Deloitte Consulting and six years in private practice, primarily with the law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy. Anne earned a BS degree with Honors in political science from Hampton University and a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia University.

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Vice President, Brand Marketing and Strategy

Marcella (Marcy) Shinder is Vice President of Brand Marketing and Strategy at OPEN from American Express®, the team dedicated exclusively to the success of small business owners and their companies. In this role, she oversees a comprehensive brand marketing program designed to ensure that OPEN® delivers on its brand promise to serve small businesses the way they serve their best customers.

Prior to this role, Marcy served as Vice President, Global Marketing, for American Express Business Travel, where she oversaw Marketing functions for North America from 2003 and globally from 2004. During that time she was responsible for identifying and delivering unique benefits tailored to meet the needs of businesses for their business travel across segments and geographies, inclusive of pricing strategy, product positioning, distribution strategy, innovation, business strategy and global branding.

Marcy has also served as Vice President, Strategic Planning, for Global Financial Services, where she led the development of a global financial services strategy as well as specific marketing strategies to attract and cross-sell financial services products to high-spending card clients. This role followed two years as Vice President, Business Development, for International Corporate Services based in Paris, where among other responsibilities she oversaw the successful execution of International Corporate Travel's Y2K plan and led the partnership strategy for business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce.

Marcy joined American Express in 1993. She spent several years in the B2B Corporate Services space, including developing new products for online travel and expense management, spearheading a middle-market focus and value proposition for travelers and card members, launching the Corporate Purchasing Card to mid-market and forging partnerships for the e-commerce procurement space. She has been recognized with several internal awards, including the Chairman's Award for Quality and the President's Club award for leadership contributions.

Marcy earned a BS from Gonzaga University, an MA in International Relations from Villanova University and an MBA in Marketing and Information Services from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University.

She lives in New York with her daughter and husband.

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Project Specialist, Advocacy Marketing

Lucrezia Robinson is responsible for identifying, evaluating and coordinating OPEN®'s partnerships with leading women's business associations. In this role, Lucrezia manages logistics for 30+ small business events annually and supports OPEN®'s community-based marketing efforts.

Lucrezia has been with American Express for 17 years. Prior to joining OPEN®, she served as Senior Executive Assistant to Group President of Global Network & Establishment Services and Travelers Cheques & Prepaid Services, a member of the American Express Global Leadership Team.

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