CEO Interview: Inside the New American Express Global Business Travel Joint Venture

It's a new era for American Express Global Business Travel, which closed June 30 on a 50-50 joint venture between American Express Co. and private equity firm Certares, with participation by the Qatar Investment Authority. With the joint venture comes a $900 million capital infusion from Certares and its partners, and that position is a stark contrast to the downsizing that American Express Global Business Travel experienced over the last couple of years. Bill Glenn, who previously headed American Express Co.'s global corporate payments and business travel units, was named the president and CEO of the joint venture, and he's obviously bullish on the new entity's prospects. Among the advantages, as Glenn sees it, is the ability to head a company that focuses solely on business travel, and he enviisons Global Business Travel expanding its global footprint through partnerships and acquisitions. There will also be investments in technology, including Big Data, and information management. The joint venture and the relatively fat corporate wallet should be great news for travel startups because Glenn says Global Business Travel will be looking to partner with or acquire some of these travel startup or tech enterprises. Skift caught up with Glenn several days after he was named CEO of American Express Global Business Travel. An edited version of the interview follows: Skift: What changes now that the joint venture is in place? Glenn: One of the things I'm most excited about is the flexibility of a standalone company, and the ability and technology to be a lot more flexible, from building, buying or allying with other partners out there. You talk about some of the technology startups you are exposed to. I think you'll see that our technology strategy and technology actions will be a combination of build, buy and ally. Those will include partnerships in some of the startups probably, star