American Express has hired eBay executive Neal Sample to join the technology team responsible for its digital commerce platform, Serve.
Sample, who is joining American Express as a senior vice president, has extensive experience in the e-commerce arena. A former VP of architecture and platforms at eBay, he most recently served as the CTO of X.commerce, eBay's open development and commerce platform. Prior to eBay, Sample was a senior executive at Yahoo! where his team was responsible for partnerships with Zynga, Facebook and Twitter.
Jason Hogg, president, Serve Enterprise, American Express, says: "Neal is an ideal fit for American Express as we look to the future of digital payments and commerce."
Based on the Revolution Money P2P payments platform, Serve was unveiled in March 2011, enabling users to buy goods and make person-to-person transfers online and through mobile phones. In November, the card scheme opened an office in Silicon Valley and set up a $100 million fund to invest in digital commerce start-ups as it looks to take on the likes of Paypal and Google in the e-commerce space.
Says Sample: "I firmly believe that American Express is leading the way in emerging commerce applications and Serve is a perfect example of how the company continues to innovate in this space."