American Express Names Jess Ling as CMO Effective Nov. 30

American Express has picked Jess Ling as its next chief marketing officer, effective Nov. 30, the company confirmed in a letter to employees from Howard Grosfield, group president of U.S. consumer services, shared on the company's website.

Ling currently serves as evp of global brand advertising. She succeeds Elizabeth Rutledge, who plans to retire in March after more than three decades with the financial institution. The Nov. 30 handover date gives the incoming CMO roughly four months of overlap before Rutledge formally exits — a long runway for a transition at the top of one of the industry's biggest marketing organizations.

Who is Jess Ling?

Ling brings more than 20 years of experience across marketing, advertising, and media, according to the company's announcement.

Her résumé before Amex includes a leadership role in B2B marketing at Verizon Media. She joined American Express in 2019, and in 2023 she moved into the global advertising and brand management team — the operation she will now lead as CMO.

The through-line in her tenure: building brands from inside the company rather than buying them from outside.

What did Ling build at Amex before this promotion?

The shift to internal capability has been a defining part of Ling's record at American Express. She helped build Amex's in-house creative agency, OnBrand, per the company.

That matters for how observers should read this appointment. A CMO who built an in-house agency inherits a marketing organization already structured around internal creative production — and a mandate that likely leans further into that model rather than away from it.

What changes on Nov. 30?

The title changes hands, but the strategy's direction of travel looks continuous. Ling moves up from within the very team she will now run, and she does so with direct experience of both the brand's advertising operations and its in-house creative infrastructure.

For the marketing industry, the appointment settles one open question at a major advertiser: who leads Amex marketing next. The answer is a 20-year operator with a B2B background at Verizon Media and a track record of consolidating creative work in-house at Amex.

The next marker on the calendar is March, when Rutledge formally retires after more than 30 years with the company — and when Ling's tenure as CMO begins in earnest on her own terms.