American Express President Falls Ill on Flight, Dies

American Express said company President Ed Gilligan died suddenly Friday after falling ill while flying on a corporate plane to New York.

Gilligan, 55, was coming back from a business trip. The plane made an emergency landing in the U.S., an American Express spokeswoman said. She declined to say where Gilligan had been.

"This is deeply painful and frankly unimaginable for all of us who had the great fortune to work with Ed," said American Express CEO Ken Chenault, in a letter to employees Friday.

Gilligan began working at the New York credit card issuer and global payments company 35 years ago as an intern. He was named president of the company in 2013 and reported to Chenault.

American Express said he is survived by his wife and four children.

In his time at the company, Gilligan worked on just about every area of American Express' business, including commercial card, small business, merchant services, travel and, most recently, digital partnerships and payments.

As a result, Gilligan was viewed as a potential candidate to eventually succeed Chenault, said Jim Shanahan, financial services analyst at Edward Jones.

"In my mind, he would have probably been one of a few people on a very short list, at least of internal candidates, to replace him at some point," Shanahan said. He noted, however, that he doesn't believe Chenault, 63, is likely to retire any time soon.

American Express has a "very deep management team," and it's possible someone else could be promoted to a more senior role and groomed for leadership of the company, Shanahan added.

Other AmEx executives were aboard the corporate jet with Gilligan as it returned to New York from a business trip, the Wall Street Journal reports.

His death sent shock waves through the company where he'd worked since 1980, when he took a temporary accounting position while he still a student at New York University earning a degree in economics and management, the Journal reports.

During his rise at AmEx, he worked in its key businesses, including its commercial-card division, and also led the company's international consumer-card business in London. He was named president of AmEx in 2013.

"Ed was a terrific friend who I’ve always held in the highest regard. He will be greatly missed," Gordon Smith, a former AmEx executive who now runs the consumer-banking business at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. told the Journal.

The pair worked together at AmEx and for a number of years lived in the same New Jersey town, the Journal reports.

Outside of work, Gilligan was on the board of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, and also was on the board of trustees of New York’s Xaverian High School, where he graduated in 1977.

"His contributions have left an indelible imprint on practically every area of our business, from commercial card and travel to international, consumer, small business, merchant services, network services and, most recently, the group forging our digital partnerships and driving payment innovations,” Chenault said in a letter to staff, the Journal reports.

Gilligan's passing comes at a challenging time for American Express.

Earlier this year, the company lost its exclusive relationship with Costco and lost a U.S. antitrust suit. A stronger U.S. dollar also dampened its revenue in the first quarter.

At the same time, the company has benefited from growing spending by cardholders.

In April, the company announced it would increase the annual fee on some of its popular charge cards, while also noting it would be beefing up some of those cards' benefits as well.

The New York-based company's shares are down 14 percent this year.

Newsmax writer Cathy Burke contributed to this report.