The Most Powerful Women in Finance: No. 16, Anu Aiyengar, JPMorgan Chase

In 2023, Anu Aiyengar became the only woman to oversee mergers and acquisitions at a major Wall Street bank when JPMorgan Chase named her global head of M&A. In April, she was promoted again when the New York banking giant named her global head of advisory — a newly created position.

Aiyengar still directs M&A, but she also leads the corporate advisory and sustainable solutions and director advisory services lines of business. The role is borne out of JPMorgan combining its corporate and investment bank with its commercial bank, a move the bank said will better connect the dots between thousands of clients with perhaps similar aspirations and concerns.

Hear her speak at The Most Powerful Women in Banking Conference in New York City, October 22-23.

As Aiyengar puts the pieces of these different divisions together, she is also expanding service to more mid-cap companies with $2 billion to $10 billion market valuations. This has resulted in a higher velocity of dealmaking, enabling Aiyengar's team to keep pace with her "a deal a day" mantra.

"The focus on deal count is something we started a few years ago," Aiyengar said, and it has dovetailed with "expanding the types of deals we do and the number of clients we serve."

JPMorgan reported 358 M&A transactions last year, which Dealogic rated as the most of any financial institution during that time. The moves generated $2.8 billion in advisory fees, JPMorgan reported. Aiyengar reports an even faster pace this year — JPMorgan M&A has announced 223 deals as of July 24.

One expanding area of business is JPMorgan's sustainable solutions and center for carbon transition team. Here, Aiyengar advises corporate executives on environmental, social and governance, or ESG, plans and how to bring a green bond to market to finance a lower carbon footprint.

Aiyengar said she guides clients to weave sustainability into their overall thinking on capital and strategic transactions. For example, a company can tell investors that they are differentiated in a particular subsector, which may give the business a valuation premium. Or there might be certain investors a company can target because they can advertise themselves as having made the energy transition, or they are set to hit certain targets over a given deadline.

Born in India, Aiyengar attended Smith College in Massachusetts, an all-women, liberal arts school. She has served on Smith's board of trustees since 2020 and is a founding member of the Smith business advisory council.

Aiyengar is also on the board of Dress for Success, a nonprofit designed to give women professional attire while also serving as a support network for female professionals. Within JPMorgan, she helps female colleagues raising a family with "not just the maternity leave part, but the flexibility when they come back."

Historically, the number of women M&A bankers with families at JPMorgan was nonexistent. Aiyengar hopes connecting bankers who are mothers across JPMorgan will help, as will more flexibility in work.

"While the M&A hours are very long, it's also work we can do from anywhere," she said.

Aiyengar has spent 24 years in the industry, all with JPMorgan. Reflecting on her career, Aiyengar said that she was wise to keep one calendar that combines work and nonwork activities to better align her overall priorities. She would advise her younger self to get more sleep, stating that books like "The Sleep Revolution" by Arianna Huffington helped her realize how clarity can be impaired by a lack of sleep.

"For years, I slept between four and six hours," Aiyengar said. "I still don't think I sleep eight hours, but I now realize sleep is a weapon and I've promised myself it will never be less than six."