Jamie Dimon isn’t certain when he’s going handy over the keys to the dominion—or moderately, management of America’s greatest financial institution.
However there’s one factor the Wall Avenue veteran does know: The qualities he desires to see in his successor, and he doesn’t want that particular person to be the “smartest” particular person throughout the board. What he’s on the lookout for is the power to rally and form a workforce of greater than 300,000 folks, main them by means of occasions of each financial prosperity and downturns.
Dimon has led JPMorgan Chase for nearly twenty years, and shocked analysts final 12 months when he introduced his retirement was not 5 years away—a line he has famously repeated at any time when he was requested the query beforehand.
And whereas Dimon appears pretty comfy with the actual fact he gained’t be leaving JPMorgan solely when his CEO successor his named (he’s more likely to keep on as chairman), his successor could have giant footwear to fill.
What he desires to see from that particular person is “the heart and the soul, and curiosity and work ethic and respect” Dimon instructed the ‘Office Hours: Business Edition’ podcast in an episode launched this week.
When requested if that particular person didn’t want to easily be the neatest particular person within the room, he agreed “no,” explaining: “Really the smartest person in the room is the person who gets the most out of everybody. They may not be as smart as everybody—we have some brilliant people who work here, I’m not as good at certain things as some of those people—but they’re the pied piper, they’re the coach.”
Dimon has certainly coached JPM’s management staff by means of some tumultuous occasions: the coronavirus pandemic, the 2008 monetary disaster, and the acquisition of Bear Stearns, to call a number of.
Management is sort of a “sports analogy,” the 69-year-old CEO continued. “You’ve seen it … one bad player could make the whole team terrible but a great coach is extraordinary.”
Who will that coach be?
A handful of names have been touted by JPMorgan itself as potential successors to Dimon. In its 2024 proxy assertion, the financial institution explicitly named a handful of individuals in its govt planning part: Jennifer Piepszak, Troy Rohrbaugh, Marianne Lake, Mary Erdoes and Daniel Pinto—the person beforehand flagged as being Dimon’s choose for CEO within the case of a disaster.
Nevertheless, Pinto, who served as Dimon’s right-hand for seven years, introduced in January he might be retiring in 2026. A knock-on impact of that call was that Piepszak was confirmed as his successor and claims to have little interest in taking the highest job.
“Jenn has made clear her preference for a senior operating role working closely with Jamie and in support of the top leadership team, and does not want to be considered for the CEO position at this time,” a JPMorgan spokesman mentioned on the time. “She is deeply committed to the future of the company and our team and wants to help in any way she can.”
The financial institution has made it clear that its subsequent chief is more likely to be one in every of its personal, a well-known face to shareholders, clients, and markets alike. However Dimon added that whereas the subsequent CEO will “probably be an insider,” they’d even be eyeing exterior candidates as a “discipline.”
And in typical Dimon vogue, he dominated out any concrete timelines on when this candidate might take over. Dimon didn’t have an “exact date,” he added: “It’s when they are ready and it’s time for me to go—some combination of the two.”
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