Phillip Riese formed RIESE & OTHERS after more than 20 years in consumer financial services, 18 of which were in leadership roles at American Express.

His last position at American Express was President of the Consumer Card Group and Chairman of American Express’ Centurion Bank leading the teams that turned around American Express’ core business. In his 18 years at American Express, he managed a variety of IT, Customer Service, Marketing, Sales, Risk Management, Data Mining and Business activities.

Prior to American Express, he was a Division Executive at Chase Bank, and before that a Partner in the consulting firm of M.C. Geffen & Associates in Capetown, South Africa.

Since leaving American Express in 1998, he has focused on building RIESE & OTHERS, being an advisor to and co-investing with a number of venture capital and private equity firms and their portfolio companies and  mentoring CEOs new to their positions.  He has served as CEO of two early stage companies: OptiMark, which developed exchange solutions for electronic marketplaces; and AirClic, which develops and supports mobile enterprise applications.

He serves on the Board of Directors of eWise, Hypercom (NYSE:HYC),  NextJump, Parago, Relay Network and Zopa (UK). He is an advisor to Opera Solutions, Payoff, Appsolute Media and Black Heritage Network based in the US, and to China Risk Finance and  Shanghai Harvest Network Technology, both based in Shanghai, China. He is an operating partner with Kubera Partners and a senior advisor to Staley Capital.

He earned a joint degree in textile engineering and economics from Leeds University in England, an MBA from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and a Masters Degree in Management from MIT.