American Express vs Cloudflare: Founders, CEOs and History

American Express was founded in 1850 by Henry Wells, William Fargo, John Warren Butterfield and is led by Stephen Squeri. Cloudflare was founded in 2009 by Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn, Lee Holloway and is led by Matthew Prince.

Company facts

American Express

Founded: 1850
Headquarters: New York, New York
Current CEO: Stephen Squeri
Employees: 76,800

Cloudflare

Founded: 2009
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Current CEO: Matthew Prince
Employees: 5,156

Founders

American Express

Henry Wells
The founding of American Express is a fascinating story of intense 19th-century corporate rivalry culminating in a monopolistic merger.
William Fargo
William Fargo co-founded American Express in 1850 alongside Henry Wells and John Butterfield, bringing operational discipline and route management expertise to the merger of competing express businesses.
John Warren Butterfield
John Warren Butterfield was one of the three founders of American Express in 1850 and served as a director, bringing the organizational resources, political connections and financial backing that made the merger viable.

American Express founders in full

Cloudflare

Matthew Prince
Matthew Prince is Cloudflare's co-founder, CEO, and board chair. In 2004 he and Lee Holloway built Project Honey Pot, which let website owners track spammers harvesting email addresses but could not stop them.
Michelle Zatlyn
Michelle Zatlyn is Cloudflare's co-founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer, and a member of its board. She met Matthew Prince at Harvard Business School, where the two developed the business plan that became Cloudflare in 2009.
Lee Holloway
Lee Holloway co-founded Cloudflare in 2009 and was its first lead engineer and systems architect. He had earlier built Project Honey Pot with Matthew Prince starting in 2004, and he designed much of Cloudflare's early software infrastructure.

Cloudflare founders in full

CEOs and their tenures

American Express

Howard L. Clark Sr.1960–1977
President and Chief Executive Officer
Howard Clark became chief executive in 1960 and ran American Express until 1977. He inherited a charge card business that was losing money two years after launch and pushed it to profitability by repositioning it as a premium product, raising the merchant disc…
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James D. Robinson III1977–1993
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
James Robinson III presided over American Express during a period of both genuine growth and serious strategic overreach.
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Harvey Golub1993–2001
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Harvey Golub inherited a company left unfocused and financially weaker by James Robinson III's financial conglomerate strategy.
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Kenneth Chenault2001–2018
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Kenneth Chenault led American Express for 17 years through two severe shocks: the September 11 attacks in 2001, which hit its lower Manhattan operations and its travel-dependent business weeks after he became chief executive, and the 2008 financial crisis, dur…
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Stephen J. Squeri2018–present
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Stephen Squeri took over from Kenneth Chenault in February 2018 and has run the most financially productive period in the company's history, with FY2025 total revenues net of interest expense of $72.2 billion and net income of $10.8 billion, both records.
Source

American Express CEO history in full

Cloudflare

Matthew Prince2009–present
Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chair
Co-founded Cloudflare in 2009, led it through its September 2019 NYSE IPO, and has grown annual revenue past $2 billion (2025) while expanding from web security into Zero Trust, developer, and AI services.
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Michelle Zatlyn2009–present
Co-Founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer
Co-founded Cloudflare in 2009 with Matthew Prince and Lee Holloway and, as President and COO, has led operations and company-building as Cloudflare scaled to more than 5,000 employees.
Source
Thomas Seifert2017–present
Chief Financial Officer
As CFO, he consistently delivered high revenue growth while carefully controlling capital expenditures, allowing Cloudflare to heavily invest in its serverless Edge computing network.
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Cloudflare CEO history in full

Timeline: American Express and Cloudflare side by side

1850American Express
American Express founded in Buffalo, New York
Henry Wells, William Fargo and John Butterfield merged three competing express businesses on March 18, 1850 to form the American Express Company, an unincorporated joint-stock association capitalized at 150,000 dollars.
1882American Express
Money order launched
American Express introduced its own money order, competing directly with the postal money order the United States Post Office had offered since 1864.
1891American Express
Traveler's cheque invented
Marcellus Berry created the American Express Traveler's Cheque after president J.C. Fargo struggled to cash letters of credit on a European trip in 1890.
1917American Express
Federal control of the express industry
Federal control of the railroads began in December 1917, and in 1918 the domestic express operations of American Express and its rivals were consolidated into the American Railway Express Company.
1958American Express
First American Express charge card
American Express issued its first charge card on October 1, 1958, printed on paper with a 6 dollar annual fee, after signing up more than 250,000 card members before launch.
1966American Express
Gold Card introduced
American Express launched the Gold Card in 1966 for higher-spending executives and frequent travelers, the first tier above the standard card and the start of the graded premium lineup that later added the Platinum Card and the Centurion Card.
1984American Express
Platinum Card launched during the financial supermarket build-out
American Express introduced The Platinum Card by invitation in 1984 with a 250 dollar annual fee, creating the ultra-premium card category.
1993American Express
Harvey Golub refocuses the company
Harvey Golub became chief executive in 1993 and unwound the conglomerate: the Shearson brokerage went to Primerica's Smith Barney and The Boston Company to Mellon Bank in 1993, and Lehman Brothers was spun off in 1994.
1999American Express
Centurion Card launched
American Express created the Centurion Card in 1999, an invitation-only metal card that became the top tier of its lineup. The company has never published its fee schedule, and the product functions mainly as a positioning device for the cards below it.
2001American Express
Kenneth Chenault becomes chief executive
Kenneth Chenault became chief executive in January 2001, weeks before the September 11 attacks damaged the company's lower Manhattan operations and cut travel spending sharply.
2008American Express
Conversion to a bank holding company
On November 10, 2008 the Federal Reserve Board approved applications by American Express Company and American Express Travel Related Services to become bank holding companies, on conversion of American Express Centurion Bank from an industrial loan company int…
2009Cloudflare
Cloudflare Founded
Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn, and Lee Holloway founded Cloudflare, building on the Project Honey Pot spam-tracking project.
2010Cloudflare
TechCrunch Disrupt Launch
Cloudflare launched publicly at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco in September 2010, offering free website protection and acceleration.
2014Cloudflare
Universal SSL and Project Galileo
Cloudflare gave free SSL certificates to all customers with Universal SSL and launched Project Galileo to protect at-risk nonprofits and journalists for free.
2016American Express
Costco co-brand ends
Costco moved its United States co-branded card to Citigroup and Visa on June 20, 2016, ending a 16-year exclusive relationship after the two sides failed to agree terms, and stopped accepting American Express cards in its warehouses.
2017Cloudflare
Cloudflare Workers Announced
Cloudflare introduced Workers, a serverless platform built on V8 isolates that lets developers run code across its network.
2018American Express
Stephen Squeri becomes chairman and chief executive
Stephen Squeri succeeded Kenneth Chenault in February 2018 after more than three decades inside the company, including spells as chief information officer and group president of Global Corporate Services.
2019Cloudflare
NYSE IPO
Cloudflare completed its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker NET in September 2019 at $15 per share, raising about $525 million.
2020American Express
Pandemic hits travel and entertainment spending
COVID-19 restrictions cut the travel and entertainment spending American Express depends on, and total revenues net of interest expense fell from 43.6 billion dollars in 2019 to 36.1 billion dollars in 2020, with net income down to 3.1 billion dollars.
2020Cloudflare
Cloudflare One Launched
Cloudflare bundled its Zero Trust access, secure web gateway, and network services into Cloudflare One, its SASE platform.
2022Cloudflare
Area 1 Security and R2 General Availability
Cloudflare acquired email security company Area 1 Security for about $162 million and made R2 zero-egress object storage generally available.
2024American Express
Tock acquisition widens the dining platform
American Express agreed in June 2024 to buy Tock, a reservation, table and event management platform, from Squarespace for 400 million dollars in cash, pairing it with Resy, which it had bought in 2019.
2024Cloudflare
Revenue Reaches $1.67 Billion
Cloudflare reported 2024 revenue of $1.67 billion and free cash flow of $166.9 million.
2025American Express
Platinum refresh and record FY2025 results
American Express unveiled refreshed United States Consumer and Business Platinum Cards on September 18, 2025, raising the annual fee from 695 dollars to 895 dollars and adding statement credits it values at over 3,500 dollars a year.
2025Cloudflare
Revenue Passes $2 Billion
Cloudflare reported 2025 revenue of $2.17 billion (+29.8%) and closed its largest contract ever, averaging $42.5 million per year in ACV.
2026Cloudflare
VoidZero Acquisition and Growth Acceleration
Cloudflare acquired VoidZero, the company behind the Vite JavaScript tooling ecosystem, in June 2026 and reported Q2 2026 revenue growth of 36%.

Acquisitions

American Express

Center2025Undisclosed
Tock2024$400M
Kabbage2020Undisclosed
Resy2019Undisclosed
Loyalty Partner2011$660M
Thomas Cook corporate travel and United States travel offices1994$375M

All American Express acquisitions

Cloudflare

Human Native2026Undisclosed
Astro Technology Company2026Undisclosed
VoidZero2026Undisclosed
Replicate2025Undisclosed
Nefeli Networks2024Undisclosed
Baselime2024Undisclosed

All Cloudflare acquisitions

Questions about American Express vs Cloudflare

Who is the CEO of American Express Company and Cloudflare, Inc.?

American Express Company is led by Stephen Squeri and Cloudflare, Inc. is led by Matthew Prince. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.

When was American Express Company founded vs Cloudflare, Inc.?

American Express Company was founded in 1850 — 159 years before Cloudflare, Inc., which was founded in 2009. American Express Company's longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Cloudflare, Inc..

How many employees does American Express Company have compared to Cloudflare, Inc.?

American Express Company employs approximately 76,800 people, while Cloudflare, Inc. employs approximately 5,156. American Express Company has the larger workforce at 76,800 employees, compared to Cloudflare, Inc.'s 5,156. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).

Where are American Express Company and Cloudflare, Inc. headquartered?

Both American Express Company and Cloudflare, Inc. are headquartered in United States, meaning they operate under the same primary regulatory and tax environment.

Who founded American Express Company and Cloudflare, Inc.?

American Express Company was founded by Henry Wells, William Fargo, John Warren Butterfield. Cloudflare, Inc. was founded by Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn, Lee Holloway.

Which company has a longer operating history — American Express Company or Cloudflare, Inc.?

American Express Company has been operating for approximately 176 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Cloudflare, Inc. has been in operation for around 17 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.

Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the American Express vs Cloudflare overview