The Most Powerful Women in Finance: No. 20, Anna Marrs, American Express

In her travels around the world meeting small-business owners, Anna Marrs, head of Global Commercial Services for American Express, has found they share one trait in common: "Whether they're running a media company in New York, a construction company in Seattle or manufacturing water bottles in Malaysia … entrepreneurs are "wonderfully, contagiously optimistic."

But optimism didn't always translate into confidence in a post-COVID landscape replete with labor shortages, mounting interest rates, inflation and a lingering threat of recession. 

Cash flow worries, in particular, often put the brakes on expansion, Marrs said. "Entrepreneurs are acutely aware of the relationship between business failures and empty coffers," Marrs said in a column for American Banker. "Cash flow is king, especially when it comes to big investment decisions." 

Her observation was reinforced by an American Express study released last spring showing that 41% of small businesses surveyed "often" or "always" turned down potential opportunities because they were unsure about cash flow.

To meet this need, in February Marrs and her team launched Business Blueprint, a digital cash flow management hub that gives small enterprises a clear view of their cash positions, including incoming and outgoing bills and lets them track and manage all their business cards. The portal, which also offers Amex financial products, marked the full integration of the tech platform of online lender Kabbage, which Marrs helped acquire in 2020. 

Based in New York, Marrs reports to American Express Chairman and CEO Stephen Squeri and oversees 6,250 employees. She has been with the global card issuer since 2018, responsible for B2B payments, working capital, AP automation and spend management businesses with an emphasis on small and midsize firms. In 2021, her role expanded to include oversight of American Express' credit and fraud risk organization. 

Last year, Amex reported assets of $228.4 billion, up from $188.5 billion in 2021, according to the company. Marrs' business played a hefty role in that asset gain, generating $13.6 billion in revenues in 2022, up from $10.9 billion the year before. 

In a bid to up Amex's market share of B2B transactions between buyers and suppliers, Marrs and her team launched Global Pay last summer. The digital hub allows small businesses to make secure payments to suppliers in more than 40 countries across a range of currencies. The portal also features access to digital financial services and lets small businesses access credit applications. In an effort to scale the digital B2B payment process and enable suppliers to accept more Amex-branded virtual card payments, the company partnered with B2B accounts receivable software providers Billtrust and Versapay.

In 2022, Marrs continued initiatives to advance diversity in small businesses, reaching a goal of providing 250,000 minority-owned small businesses with access to capital and financial education two years earlier than originally planned. Marrs also expanded the reach of ByBlack, a nonprofit that provides a national certification exclusively for Black-owned businesses.

Marrs got to interview "Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda from the mainstage of the  L'ATTITUDE 2022 conference in San Diego, which brought together Latino business owners from around the country. Miranda, who has been associated with Amex since 2017, told Marrs that he is a small-business co-owner himself, having bought the Drama Book Shop, a beloved New York institution, when it was threatened by draconian rent hikes. 

In the interview, Miranda summed up what drives small-business entrepreneurs: "If you're creating a small business, you're doing the same thing I'm doing as a composer — taking what doesn't exist in the world but should."  

As a member of the company's executive committee, Marrs is the most senior female business leader overseeing profit and loss and companywide agenda.