- President and COO Daniel Pinto has been tapped to act as “sole CEO” in case of an emergency.
- But the board is also grooming several other top execs “as strong potential CEO candidates.”
- We’ve got names and faces for more than 100 top JPMorgan leaders across investment banking, and more.
As the largest bank in the United States by assets, JPMorgan Chase has long served as a bellwether for both legacy competitors and startups alike. The bank’s CEO and chairman, Jamie Dimon, has consequently been a leading voice shaping both Wall Street and Main Street for decades.
Dimon has steered JPMorgan through cataclysmic storms since taking the top post in 2005, from the global financial crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most recently, Dimon took charge in crafting a private-sector response to the crisis besieging the nation’s regional banks.
But the billionaire turned 67 this March, and questions have echoed for years about when Dimon plans to retire — and who will take his place at the helm of a company spanning some 240,000 employees and roughly $3.7 trillion in assets.
On Tuesday, JPMorgan’s board of directors provided a little more insight into its CEO succession plans via a 116-page annual proxy filing.
In a letter to shareholders signed by Dimon, the board’s chairman, and the lead independent director, the board said that it “has developed, and will continue to develop, several Operating Committee members who are well-known to shareholders as strong potential CEO candidates.” But this year, one name in particular stood out: President and COO Daniel Pinto, who now stands as second-in-command at the bank following the retirement of former top exec Gordon Smith in 2021.
The board said that it is “fortunate to have Mr. Pinto as a key executive who is immediately ready to step into the role of sole CEO, should the need arise in the near-term.” Pinto served as co-CEO of JPMorgan alongside Smith when Dimon underwent heart surgery in 2020.
Underscoring the board’s faith in Pinto is the fact that, per JPMorgan’s compensation committee, his compensation package is now structured in line with Dimon’s. According to the proxy statement released Tuesday, 85% of Dimon’s incentive-based compensation is now made up of performance-related stock units.
In last year’s proxy statement, by contrast, Dimon’s brief note to shareholders mentioned Pinto, consumer and community banking co-heads Marianne Lake and Jennifer Piepszak, and CFO Jeremy Barnum when discussing its “deep bench” of leaders.
A spokesperson for JPMorgan declined to comment.
When pressed about his succession plans at an industry conference in June of 2022, Dimon’s response was characteristically to-the-point. “I have 10 board members who decide every day whether they want me in this job or not. I’m an employee at will, they can fire me tomorrow,” Dimon said at the time, according to a transcript of the conversation from data provider AlphaSense/Sentieo.
But in 2021, JPMorgan’s board granted Dimon a one-time, hefty incentive to stay on as leader for another half-decade: 1.5 million stock appreciation rights slated to exercise should Dimon remain at JPMorgan through 2026 — now just three years away.
Since 2021, the composition of JPMorgan’s operating committee — a group of the bank’s top 18 leaders — has remained stable. But 2022 did bring several notable changes among the bank’s top ranks.
David Miree, formerly the head of consumer and small business diverse customer segments at Wells Fargo, joined JPMorgan last March as the firm’s new head of global diversity, equity & inclusion. Miree replaced Brian Lamb, who now leads JPMorgan’s northeast segment for middle market banking & specialized industries.
The summer of 2022 saw another key departure from JPMorgan. Matt Cherwin, the firm’s treasurer and chief investment officer reporting directly to CFO Barnum, left the bank in July. Cherwin was replaced by Charles Bristow, who previously headed up rates trading, fixed income financing, and markets portfolio management for JPMorgan.
Additions to the organizational chart also highlight the growth within some of JPMorgan’s key teams. Within commercial banking, for example, new executives joined the bank last fall to lead digital and fintech partnership efforts. And with Anish Bhimani now serving as chief product officer for JPMorgan’s commercial bank, the division also has a new chief tech executive. Erin King, who joined the bank in 2020, is now the commercial banking’s CIO reporting directly to group CIO Lori Beer.
Insider has identified 114 leaders at JPMorgan who either report directly to Dimon or JPMorgan’s president and COO, Daniel Pinto, answer to one of their direct reports, or lead teams within divisions. We compiled the list through news reports, press releases, and speaking with current employees. That’s up from 92 names the last time we published this chart in March 2022.
The chart focuses on key executives as well as the people who support them. In some cases, employees report jointly to multiple executives, while in other cases, they report to two executives for two different roles. In the chart, those leaders that sit on JPMorgan’s Operating Committee are denoted as Senior executives.
The chart helps put a name and face to the key leaders driving the biggest US consumer bank by assets, and one of the most successful investment banks on Wall Street. It also provides some clues as to who might one day succeed Dimon, Wall Street’s longest running CEO. See the chart here:
Have we missed anyone, or do you know more about how the power is shared at JPMorgan? Contact Carter Johnson using a non-work device via email (cjohnson@insider.com), encrypted messaging app Signal (646-376-6028), or Twitter DM (@hcarterjohnson).
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