Meet the Men Running JPMorgan While Dimon Recovers
March 06 2020 - 3:38PM
Dow Jones News
By Orla McCaffrey and David Benoit
Daniel Pinto and Gordon Smith had a message to deliver to
JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s investment bankers at a meeting Friday
morning following Chief Executive James Dimon's emergency heart
surgery: Get to work.
For now, the bankers and the rest of JPMorgan's more than
250,000 employees are working for Messrs. Pinto and Smith.
The JPMorgan co-presidents took the helm at America's largest
bank Thursday after Mr. Dimon suffered an acute aortic dissection
-- a rare and often fatal heart injury. Mr. Dimon is "recovering
well" after a successful surgery, the bank said in a memo to
employees. Meanwhile, Messrs. Pinto and Smith are in charge.
Mr. Smith, who runs JPMorgan's consumer bank, and Mr. Pinto, the
head of its corporate and investment bank, have been at Mr. Dimon's
right hand since January 2018, when he named them co-presidents and
laid the foundation for a succession plan that was set in motion
Thursday.
For now, it is a temporary arrangement. But should his illness
cause Mr. Dimon to step down for good, Messrs. Pinto and Smith are
at the top of the list to replace him.
Mr. Pinto, 57, oversees JPMorgan's deal-making, trading and
corporate-advisory business. He is also responsible for the bank's
treasury-services business, which manages cash for global
corporations and other financial institutions.
A native of Argentina, Mr. Pinto got his start in the banking
business in his early 20s working as a currency trader at
Manufacturers Hanover Corp. in Buenos Aires. He needed a job to pay
his university tuition following a stint in the country's army
during the Falklands War. (Manufacturers Hanover is one of the many
banks that ultimately became part of what is now JPMorgan.)
After being named sole CEO of JPMorgan's corporate bank in 2014,
Mr. Pinto convinced Mr. Dimon to allow him to commute to New York
from his home in London.
Mr. Smith, 61, oversees JPMorgan's consumer bank and its
thousands of Chase branches, as well as its credit-card, mortgage
and auto-lending businesses. Some 61 million U.S. households do
business with Chase.
Mr. Dimon, 63, recruited Mr. Smith from American Express Co. in
2007 to grow Chase's credit-card business. Mr. Smith has guided
Chase through a major expansion. The consumer bank now accounts for
just under half of the bank's revenue.
Last year, Wells Fargo & Co.'s board approached Mr. Smith
about its open CEO job, but he decided to stay put.
All told, Messrs. Pinto and Smith are responsible for about 80%
of the bank's business. In their role as co-presidents and co-chief
operating officers, they also manage most of the bank's day-to-day
operations. For their services, they each took home $22.5 million
in 2019.
The two men have long been considered potential successors to
Mr. Dimon, should he retire in the near term. Mr. Dimon has given
no indication he is ready to step down; earlier this year, he said
he had about five years left in the job.
If Mr. Dimon sticks to that timeline, the top contenders to
succeed him are Marianne Lake, who runs JPMorgan's consumer-lending
business, and Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Piepszak. JPMorgan
elevated the women, both 50, last year in a reshuffling that
signaled their status as possible successors.
Yet if Mr. Dimon's sudden illness accelerates his plans, it
could put the co-presidents in contention to take over permanently
as co-CEOs.
Such arrangements are rare but not unheard of, and they don't
always work. Salesforce.com co-CEO Keith Block resigned last month
after sharing the post with founder Marc Benioff for 18 months.
For now, JPMorgan still has one CEO: Mr. Dimon. He was in good
condition Friday morning, according to a person familiar with the
matter, well enough to call into the office.
Write to Orla McCaffrey at orla.mccaffrey@wsj.com and David
Benoit at david.benoit@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 06, 2020 15:23 ET (20:23 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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