Margaret Keane

Margaret Keane is Executive Chair of the Board of Directors of Synchrony, one of the nation’s premier consumer financial services companies. She assumed this role in April 2021.

Keane’s passion for emerging technology, innovation and employee development has solidified her reputation as a top leader in financial services. She has been consistently recognized as one of Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women” and American Banker’s “Most Powerful Women in Finance.” Fortune has also named Keane to their “Businessperson of the Year” list and she’s been included as one of the “Most Influential Women in Finance” by Barron’s.

Previously, Keane served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Synchrony where she led the company’s initial public offering in 2014 and separation from GE in 2015. As CEO, she built Synchrony into a sustainable, innovative, and industry-leading business with an exceptional culture. Through her leadership and vision, she created a workplace committed to caring, inclusion and innovation at every level, while balancing the needs of all stakeholders—including Synchrony’s partners, customers, communities, shareholders and more than 16,000 employees. Under Keane’s leadership, Synchrony grew to 170 on the Fortune 500 list and was consistently named among Fortune's Top 100 Best Companies to Work For. During her 18-year career with GE Capital, where she led the retail card platform as President and CEO beginning in 2004. She later expanded her responsibilities in 2011 to become President and CEO of the GE Capital North American Retail Finance business. Earlier, she held leadership roles that spanned consumer finance, vendor financial services, operations, and quality. Keane spent the first 16 years of her career at Citibank in various leadership roles.

Keane is dedicated to giving back to the community. As President of the Synchrony Foundation, Keane has been instrumental in building Synchrony’s corporate citizenship platform and today helps to oversee its work focused on moving those in need forward. She also serves on the board and is passionately committed to the work of buildOn, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering urban youth to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and low expectations.

Keane serves on the Allstate Corporation Board of Directors and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Boards of Overseers and Patient Care Committee. She works closely with the Business Roundtable, working to promote a thriving U.S. economy and expanded opportunity for all Americans through sound public policy. She serves as the co-chair for AdvanceCT, an organization committed to engaging, retaining and recruiting businesses and advancing economic competitiveness in Connecticut.

Keane earned a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from St. John’s University and is a member of the St. John’s University Board of Trustees. She is married with two children.