Neal Sample
A University of Wyoming graduate will be the keynote speaker during this month’s e2e Laramie meeting.
Neal Sample, chief information officer, Enterprise Growth, for American Express, presents “Humanizing the Web: Change and Social Innovation (Technology, Work and Globalization)” from 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25, at the Laramie Hilton Garden Inn. The discussion is part of the Wyoming Technology Business Center’s (WTBC) e2e networking program.
Sample, who received both his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in computer science from UW, has extensive technology and engineering experience. He has spent most of his career developing and building platforms and products for emerging technologies.
“Neal is a UW graduate, with major information technology (IT) experience with large, well-known companies,” says Jonathon Benson, WTBC CEO. “We have a growing cluster of IT-related companies here in town. I think having a speaker of Neal’s experience will be interesting to those companies as well as to help stimulate more IT-related companies. He’s really going to be talking about social media issues.”
Benson adds the discussion will be interesting to all types of companies.
At American Express, Sample manages end-to-end platform technology, infrastructure and operations for the Serve platform that allows consumers to make purchases, take cash withdrawals from ATMs and make person-to-person payments from their computer or their phone. He also is in charge of a suite of American Express prepaid products, including the delivery and implementation of the Bluebird, Verizon and Zynga partnerships.
Sample joined American Express in 2012 as the company’s senior vice president of technology. Previously, he worked at the executive levels of eBay and Yahoo! He is currently chairman of the UW Department of Computer Science Advisory Board and a member of the UW College of Engineering and Applied Science National Advisory Board.
Sample received his doctoral and master’s degrees in computer science from Stanford University. He also completed a post-doctoral research fellowship with the CIA Office of Research and Development.
He lives in Montclair, N.J., with his wife, Meredith, and three children: Aidan, David and Julia.
e2e is an educational networking program with chapters in Laramie, Sheridan, Gillette and Casper; and is designed to improve the climate for the start-up and growth of entrepreneurial companies. Each e2e chapter meets bi-monthly for 45 minutes of networking, followed by a 45-minute program. The programs include successful entrepreneurs telling their stories, panel discussion on relevant topics and advice from experts in a specific business.
The WTBC, a not-for-profit business incubator that provides entrepreneurs with the expertise, networks and tools necessary for success, launched e2e as an educational networking program.
For more information about e2e, call the WTBC office at (307) 766-6395.
