Anand Sanwal (New York, NY) is the former Vice President, Investment Optimization and Strategic Business Analysis, at American Express.  Within this role, he was responsible for managing American Express’ ambitious CPM effort which spanned the entire organization and which captured over $4 billion of per annum discretionary investment spend (it is known as Investment Optimization within the organization). In his role, he also oversaw the CFO’s strategy and analysis group.  Prior to leaving American Express, Anand setup and managed the company inaugural $50MM Chairman's Innovation Fund.  For these efforts, American Express was recognized as the most innovative firm in the financial services industry.  He began his career at American Express in their venture capital/corporate development group sourcing, analyzing and executing product development, M&A and investment opportunities.

 

Anand is currently a Managing Director at Brilliont - a consulting and software firm focused on corporate portfolio, cost optimization, and innovation. 

 

Prior to Brilliont and American Express, Anand worked in London as part of Kozmo.com’s strategic growth group. He also worked with the Atlas Industrial Group (strategy/operations consultant) in Shanghai and Mumbai as well as with PriceWaterhouseCoopers (Capital Markets Associate). He holds a degree in finance and accounting from the Wharton School of Business and a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

He is a recognized thought leader on Corporate Portfolio Management and Innovation speaking frequently to companies and research organizations including the CFO Executive Board, Beyond Budgeting Roundtable, Enterprise Portfolio Management Council, and Gartner amongst others. He is also the holder of a CPM patent. The CPM effort he has lead at American Express was also given two prestigious Baseline ROI Awards by Baseline Magazine, an InfoWorld 100 award and has also been used as a case example regarding resource allocation in Columbia University’s MBA program.

 

If interested in having Anand address your organization, you can contact him by clicking here.  His blog, Investile Dysfunction, can also be found here.