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

Phillip retired from American Express in 1998 as President of the Consumer Card Group and Chairman of American Express’ Centurion Bank having led the teams that turned around American Express’ core business. Over his 18 years at American Express, he managed a variety of IT, Transaction Processing, Customer Service, Marketing, Sales, Risk Management, Data Mining, Product and Business Development activities covering both the card issuing and merchant acceptance businesses. Prior to American Express, he was a Division Executive in charge of Chase Manhattan Bank’s Credit Card Merchant Business.

Before entering the credit card business, Phillip was focused on the textile and clothing industry as a partner of MC Geffen and Associates, based in South Africa.

The RIESE & OTHERS portfolio today includes AirClic, Appsolute Media, Betterment, China Risk Finance (China), eWise, NextJump, Parago, Pursway, Relay Network, Scanbuy, Shanghai Harvest Network Technology (China), YourGrocer.com and Zopa (UK). In most cases, he either serves on the board of directors or is an advisor to the CEO of the company.

He holds 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.