00:00American Express's CEO heads a $200 billion financial giant, but his lack of fashion sense
00:06almost kept him out of the running. Stephen Squirey joined American Express in 1985 and
00:12then moved up over a long period of time, but in each step he took up the ladder, he kept
00:17being
00:18told, you'll never be CEO of this company. Steve Squirey had no ambition to become CEO of American
00:24Express, but after the heir apparent tragically died coming back from Tokyo on an airplane, the CEO
00:31of American Express, Ken Chenault, increasingly turned to Steve for leadership of the company.
00:37During our interviews, Steve told me that his predecessor was very enthusiastic about Steve's
00:42becoming CEO, but the board wasn't necessarily so enthusiastic. In a wardrobe sense, Steve really
00:49wasn't playing the political game. In one occasion at a board meeting during a Jets game that he
00:54couldn't attend, he wore a Jets jersey under his suit jacket and shocked some of the board members.
01:00Steve Squirey got some advice from the head of HR who told him, you just don't dress like a CEO.
01:06So what did Steve do? He summoned a expert in wardrobes. After several hours, Steve asked the
01:13consultant, how much of this can stay? And the consultant said, none of it. Steve put what he
01:19calls a king's ransom on his American Express card, and the only thing he got to keep was his Jets
01:25jersey. And eventually he won them all over. What surprised me the most in interviewing Steve
01:30at length for about three hours is what a big personality he has. He's a great raconteur. He's a
01:36great people person. He's extremely colorful. He's extremely frank. And talking about taking
01:42elocution lessons because he's from Queens, he didn't speak the goodly English, that modesty
01:47and those humble beginnings were highly unusual for the background of a top CEO.
01:53For more on Squirey's climb to the top, you can read my feature at fortune.com.
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