James D Robinson III

James D. Robinson III, who as chief executive of the American Express Company from 1977 to 1993 helped transform Wall Street into a more competitive financial marketplace, with a wide diversity of businesses housed under single roofs, died on Monday in Roslyn, N.Y., on Long Island. He was 88. Mr. Robinson was General Partner of RRE Ventures, a private information technology-focused venture capital firm, and held this position since 1994. He is also President of JD Robinson, Inc., a strategic advisory firm. Until February 2008, he was nonexecutive Chairman of the Board of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. He previously served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American Express Company from 1977 to 1993. Mr. Robinson is a Director of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Novell, Inc. After attending Woodberry Forest, a private school in Virginia, Mr. Robinson enrolled as a day student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he studied industrial management. After graduating in 1957, he joined the Navy, which assigned him to the nuclear submarine base at Pearl Harbor, That same year he married Bettye Bradley, with whom he had two children. After his discharge in 1959, Mr. Robinson enrolled at the Harvard Business School and earned an M.B.A. in 1961. He began his business career at Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. In 1968, Mr. Robinson became a partner at White Weld & Company, where he developed an interest in venture capital. He joined American Express in 1970 as an executive vice president, recruited by Eugene R. Black Sr., an Atlanta native, Amex director and former head of the World Bank. Mr. Robinson became president in 1975 and chairman and chief executive in 1977. He was also chairman and chief executive of Shearson Lehman Brothers, American Express’s brokerage subsidiary. His marriage to Ms. Bradley ended in 1983 after she had an incapacitating brain aneurysm, he said, and asked for a divorce. In 1984, he married Linda Gosden, a high-profile public relations executive who later advised him during the RJR Nabisco battle. She is the daughter of Freeman F. Gosden, co-creator and a voice of the radio program “Amos ‘n’ Andy.” Robinson and his wife became prominent members of a glittering New York social scene, active in philanthropies and fund-raising for Republican candidates. He is survived by his wife; his two children from his first marriage, James IV and Emily Cook; two children from his second marriage, Nicholas and Olivia Robinson; his sister, Frances Huber; and six grandchildren.