Who are the contenders to replace Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan Chase?

September 17, 2024 6:00 AM

The question of who will next sit in the big chair at the nation's largest bank is again heating up.

A few months after stating that the timeline for his eventual departure had dwindled, JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon spoke last week about his focus on succession planning, reiterating that the bank has a deep bench of qualified candidates.

"We all want to get that exactly right," the 68-year-old CEO said in remarks at an industry conference, according to Reuters.

The guessing game about Dimon's next move has been underway for at least a decade. In 2014, he went through chemotherapy and radiation treatment for throat cancer. And in 2020, he underwent emergency heart surgery. Both times he returned to the job he's held since 2006.

But earlier this year, Dimon said that his timetable for stepping down as CEO was no longer five years, which had long been his answer to the question, and was now perhaps as short as two-and-a-half years.

One month earlier, Dimon was asked about the possibility of taking a job in government, and he didn't close the door on the possibility.

'I think you'd be better off if you had practitioners at the table a lot of times," Dimon said. "That's true for regulators. It's true for Cabinet members. It's true for people inside the government. "

Dimon's eventual successor as CEO will likely be drawn from the company's 15-member Operating Committee, which meets every Monday morning at 10 a.m.

What follows is a look at five of the most prominent current contenders for the CEO job. All five of them sit on the bank's Operating Committee, and all have been with the bank for at least 19 years.

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Daniel Pinto

President and Chief Operating Officer

Age: 61

Pinto, who was born in Argentina, has been with JPMorgan and predecessor companies since the early 1980s.

He became co-CEO of the bank's corporate and investment bank in 2012, its sole CEO in 2014, co-president and co-chief operating of the entire company in 2018, and sole president and COO in 2022.

Last January, Pinto relinquished his role atop corporate and investment banking to Jennifer Piepszak and Troy Rohrbaugh, who were named co-CEOs of the division, which now also houses commercial banking.

Pinto said recently that his current job involves not only working with Dimon on the overall management of the company, but also working with the leaders of business units in areas where there are growth opportunities. He specifically mentioned artificial intelligence, as well as technology more broadly.

Dimon reportedly said in his remarks last week that Pinto "could run the bank tomorrow."

Jennifer Piepszak

Co-CEO, Corporate and Investment Bank

Age: 54

Piepszak has been with JPMorgan for three decades. She served as the company's chief financial officer from 2019 to 2021, and as co-CEO of the consumer and community banking division from 2021 to January 2024, before moving into her current role.

The corporate and investment bank houses not only corporate banking, global investment banking and commercial banking, but also global payments and markets & securities services.

At the company's investor day in May, Piepszak addressed a question, following the death of a Bank of America investment banker who'd been working long hours, about the pressure on young bank employees.

"Every leader in this company, their job is carrying out culture and caring about the health and well-being of our employees. So, whatever it takes to make sure that we are caring about the health and well-being, that's what we're going to do," Piepszak said.

"We have to be out in the field, and every one of us are, so that we have a sense of where the pressure might be mounting. And we need to give people the resources to be able to cope," she added.

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Troy Rohrbaugh

Co-CEO, Corporate and Investment Bank

Age: 54

Rohrbaugh, who joined JPMorgan in 2005, was co-head of the firm's markets & securities services unit before moving into his current role in January.

He spoke over the summer about how he and Piepszak split up responsibilities, saying that when a lot of companies create co-heads, "it turns into a cage match."

"That's definitely not how JPMorgan works," he added.

Having co-heads of a business division provides the ability to be in two places at the same time, Rohrbaugh said.

""You can make individual decisions on the things that are day-to-day business. But then you get two different perspectives that hopefully create a more valuable or a better decision on the more strategic questions," he said, explaining that Dimon will hold them jointly responsible for the outcome in the latter situation.

Rohrbaugh said that because he has a background in markets, matters involving the markets business will typically be escalated to him first. The same is true for Piepszak on issues involving banking.

"That said, if I'm on a plane, then everyone in markets will call Jen, and she'll make the decision," Rohrbaugh said.

Marianne Lake

CEO, Consumer and Community Banking

Age: 55

Lake, who was born in the United Kingdom, has been with JPMorgan for two decades. She was CEO of consumer lending from 2019 to 2021 and served as the company's CFO from 2013 to 2019, after which she moved into her current role.

In remarks late last year, Lake said that she was expecting JPMorgan to continue gaining deposit share, even after it got a large boost last year from the acquisition of the failed First Republic Bank.

JPMorgan has been investing not just in branches, but also in bankers and digital capabilities, Lake said.

"And we're going to continue to add branches, and those branches are going to continue to season," she said. "So I think it's a pretty significant tailwind, and it's a pretty big moat, because this is a long game. And it's the product of the 10 years of investments we've made — and the 10 years we're about to make — that's going to continue to see that kind of growth going forward."

Lake noted that at the time of her remarks, JPMorgan had less than 5% branch share in 17 of the top 50 markets. "And that's not where we want to be, and it's not where we will end up," she said.

Mary Callahan Erdoes

CEO, Asset and Wealth Management

Age: 57

Erdoes has been with JPMorgan for more than 25 years, and she's led its asset and wealth management division for the last 15 years.

At the company's investor day in May, Erdoes was one of a number of JPMorgan executives who spoke about the firm's use of AI.

"We're doing three main things," she said. "One, we're reducing the time for, like, hunting and pecking. You're on a call with a client, and the client says, "Do you have something on your large-cap growth fund?' The system pulls up the large-cap growth fund right while you're on the phone. They then say, 'Yes, but I have some great competitor fund in that space already.' It spits out a sample email to the client, a compare-and-contrast."

Second, Erdoes said: "Rote, repeatable work — we are getting rid of it at every front. And it's really important. Some of the analysts have said already they get two to four hours back in their day."

"And then we also use AI to do some of the hardest things, which is to map the brains of some of the smartest people in our company," she said. "And then you can tie it with our stock-picking list — Which stocks would that lead you to want to buy? — all there while you were on the phone with the client."