Jamie Dimon, the billionaire CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has led the large finance firm for the higher a part of the final twenty years, driving its belongings and inventory worth to new heights.
“Within the midst of essentially the most critical and far-reaching monetary disaster for the reason that Thirties — a lot of it brought on by plain previous avarice and dangerous judgment — Dimon and JPMorgan Chase stood aside,” Duff McDonald, an creator and journalist, wrote of Dimon in his 2009 guide “Final Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase,” referring to the 2008 monetary disaster.
“A lot of the melodramatic protection of Wall Road postcrisis has targeted on its flaws — the hubris and the greed,” McDonald wrote. “Jamie Dimon’s story comprises the opposites — the values of readability, consistency, integrity, and braveness. By sticking to them, Dimon has unquestionably turn out to be the dominant banking government of his period.”
Here is a take a look at Dimon’s profession, from his stint as a administration marketing consultant to changing into the billionaire financier propelling JPMorgan Chase’s rise.
Representatives for Dimon declined to remark for this story when contacted by Enterprise Insider.
Born into the world of finance
Dimon was born in New York Metropolis on March 13, 1956, one in every of three sons to Theodore and Themis (née Kalos) Dimon. His father was a stockbroker at Shearson who would ultimately turn out to be an government vice chairman at American Categorical.
After her sons went to school, Themis Dimon pursued a grasp’s diploma in psychology at Columbia College’s Academics School and volunteered at a preschool program.
The couple, who have been married for 65 years, died inside 22 hours of one another, in keeping with their 2016 obituaries.
Dimon graduated from Tufts College, the place he majored in psychology and economics. After a stint as a administration marketing consultant at Boston Consulting Group, Dimon earned his MBA from Harvard in 1982.
A banking whiz child from the beginning
Dimon’s finance expertise have been clear from early on. On the behest of his mentor, the financier Sandy Weill, he turned down provides from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to simply accept a job at American Categorical after graduating from Harvard.
When Weill left American Categorical in 1985, Dimon adopted. The pair ran Business Credit score, an organization they’d construct into the financial-services conglomerate Citigroup.
Michael L Abramson by way of Getty Photos
An sudden ouster led to a key pivot
Weill requested Dimon to resign in 1998 after 15 years of working collectively. Weill would later inform The New York Instances it was as a result of Dimon needed to take over as CEO however he wasn’t able to retire. Weill informed the Instances he regretted that the battle led to Dimon’s ouster.
On an episode of the “Espresso with The Greats” podcast, Dimon stated he was “completely stunned” by his firing from Citigroup. He thought-about jobs at Amazon and Dwelling Depot however finally grew to become CEO of Financial institution One in 2000, which on the time was the nation’s fifth-largest financial institution. Finally, it could merge with JPMorgan.
JPMorgan’s merger with Financial institution One noticed Dimon’s energy surge
When JPMorgan merged with Financial institution One in 2004, Dimon grew to become the brand new banking big’s president and chief working officer. He would later turn out to be the financial institution’s CEO in 2006.
Dimon rapidly slashed bills throughout the board, McDonald wrote in his biography. He ended the apply of the financial institution’s company wing paying for purchasers to attend the US Open tennis event, canceled a $5 billion contract with IBM for computer-management providers, and lower regional managers’ compensation by as a lot as 50% over the subsequent two years.
“He is happening like cod liver oil,” Bloomberg reported one banker stated of Dimon’s strategy.
McDonald wrote in his biography of Dimon that one other unnamed banker stated, “The information that Jamie is flying in is just like being informed that Ivan the Horrible is coming for tea.”
TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA va Getty Photos
His demanding management has confirmed priceless through the years
In 2008, Dimon performed a key function in rescuing main banks from collapse amid the monetary disaster. JPMorgan bought Bear Stearns for $10 a share and likewise acquired Washington Mutual, which on the time was the biggest US financial savings and mortgage establishment, The New York Instances reported.
“Jamie was demanding. He was relentless,” Theresa Sweeney, his assistant from 1993 to 2000, is quoted as saying in McDonald’s biography. “And he all the time needed the one factor I hadn’t carried out. I might stroll in there with my pad of paper and he’d give me 10 issues to do. I might return to my desk. An hour later, he’d name me and I might have already carried out 9 of them. And he’d ask for the tenth. And he pounded and pounded and pounded till you bought it carried out. By the third time he requested for one thing, you higher have been at a funeral, as a result of that was the one acceptable excuse for not having it completed.”
Beneath his management, and due largely to its strategic partnerships and acquisitions, JPMorgan’s worth has skyrocketed, changing into the main American financial institution by way of home belongings, market capitalization, and inventory worth.
School sweethearts grew to become dad and mom to three women
Dimon married his school sweetheart, Judith Kent, after assembly at Harvard. They’ve three daughters collectively: Julia, Laura, and Kara Leigh.
Kent went to Tulane College for her undergraduate diploma earlier than receiving a grasp’s in group psychology from the Catholic College of America and an MBA from Harvard. She labored alongside Dimon at American Categorical as a administration trainee shortly earlier than they married, a 1983 wedding ceremony announcement printed in The New York Instances stated.
Dimon has had a couple of well being scares through the years, together with a battle with throat most cancers in 2014 and emergency coronary heart surgical procedure in 2020 after he was recognized with an aortic tear, The Wall Road Journal reported.
Brendan Smialowski
A longtime political donor, Dimon has thought-about a run for workplace himself
For a few years, Dimon was a distinguished donor to the Democratic Celebration. Although he labeled himself as “barely a Democrat” in 2012, his political ties to the Obama administration led to hypothesis he can be named secretary of the Treasury. The place was finally given to Timothy Geithner.
In 2016, he joined a business-advisory discussion board assembled by then-President Donald Trump, although it disbanded roughly a yr later. Dimon supported a number of of Trump’s jobs and tax insurance policies however publicly disagreed with him on issues of immigration and worldwide commerce.
He briefly thought-about operating for president in 2018. Although he finally determined in opposition to it, MarketWatch reported that he stated, “I considered enthusiastic about it.”
The billionaire hedge-fund supervisor Invoice Ackman inspired Dimon to think about a presidential bid in 2023, Forbes reported. The outlet additionally stated Dimon anticipated to guide JPMorgan for at the very least 3 ½ extra years.
Although he hasn’t made any strikes towards a marketing campaign for public workplace, Dimon informed Bloomberg final spring, “I like my nation, and possibly sooner or later I will serve my nation in a single capability or one other.”
Dimon’s continued bank-saving has led to report JPMorgan earnings
Dimon reprised his function as bank-saver in 2023, The New York Instances reported, working as a accomplice with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the Fed chair Jerome Powell to persuade leaders of 11 main banks to pitch in $30 billion to forestall First Republic Financial institution from collapsing within the wake of Silicon Valley Financial institution and Signature Financial institution failing in speedy succession.
In doing so, Dimon was “performing as a senior statesperson who helps to shore up the monetary trade in a time of disaster of confidence,” Mike Mayo, a longtime banking analyst, stated to the Instances. “With that comes probably greater status but in addition potential backlash.”
However thus far, the backlash hasn’t come.
Per Fortune, JPMorgan’s inventory worth has tripled since Dimon grew to become CEO, and Bloomberg reported that in 2023, the financial institution recorded the largest-ever annual revenue amongst US banks, pulling in almost $50 billion.
Dimon could also be retiring before anticipated
Throughout a Q&A with traders on Monday, Dimon recommended his retirement could also be on the horizon.
Whereas prior to now Dimon joked he would retire in 5 years, when requested about his succession plan this time the 68-year-old stated the timeline was “not 5 years anymore.”
The longest-running CEO on Wall Road additionally stated the plan to establish his alternative was “properly on its means,” and that he might probably keep on as chair.
Word: This story was initially printed April 2024 and has since been up to date.
Correction: April 9, 2024 — An earlier model of this story misstated the title of the financial institution JPMorgan merged with in 2004. It is Financial institution One, not One Financial institution.
