Joseph B. Owens, Jr. (B.S. 1977) has been named a 2019 Distungished Alumni by the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. Mr. Owens is Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Indego Africa Project, a non-profit social enterprise that supports women-owned businesses in Rwanda and Ghana through access to markets and education. Previously he was with American Express Company for over 30 years, where he held leadership positions in finance, business transformation and reengineering, and revenue development. Mr. Owens positions included Vice President, Strategic Transformation for American Express Global Business Travel, one of the largest corporate travel management companies worldwide. Prior to that, Mr. Owens was CFO of Global Business Travel. He has held cross product line CFO positions in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

During his career with American Express, he lived in Bangkok, Rome, London, Frankfurt and Miami, as well as his base in New York. Mr. Owens holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. Mr. Owens is a member of the Ivan Allen College Advisory Board and the Board of Advisors for the School of Economics at Georgia Tech, as well as the Alumni Council of the Owen School at Vanderbilt.