JPMorgan Chase Puts CEO Contenders in Charge of Consumer Operation
May 18 2021 - 10:09AM
Dow Jones News
By David Benoit
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is putting two of the contenders vying
to succeed Chief Executive Jamie Dimon in charge of its sprawling
consumer-banking operation.
The bank on Tuesday said consumer-lending chief Marianne Lake
and Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Piepszak are taking the reins
of its consumer and community bank from Gordon Smith, who will
retire at the end of the year. Jeremy Barnum, the bank's head of
global research, will become finance chief. The changes take effect
immediately.
The move comes two years after JPMorgan put Ms. Lake and Ms.
Piepszak in their current roles and established them as
front-runners to one day run America's biggest bank. The decision
to place the women, both 51 years old, in charge of a unit that
serves half of all U.S. households and accounts for roughly 40% of
the bank's profits further cements that status.
Mr. Smith is JPMorgan's co-president and co-chief operating
officer alongside Daniel Pinto, who leads its corporate and
investment bank. The two men briefly ran JPMorgan last year when
Mr. Dimon was recovering from emergency heart surgery. But Mr.
Smith's age -- 62 -- put him out of contention to permanently
succeed Mr. Dimon, who is 65.
In an interview, Mr. Smith said he is stepping down to spend
more time with his wife and family. Ms. Lake and Ms. Piepszak, he
said, are "superb leaders" who made the decision easier.
Mr. Dimon has maintained that his retirement isn't a near-term
event -- for years his standard answer to the perennial question
from analysts and journalists has been "five more years." But the
move will leave the 58-year-old Mr. Pinto alone in the role of CEO
in an emergency, known internally as the "Jamie got hit by a bus"
scenario.
Mr. Smith is the last remaining member of the bank's operating
committee of top leaders who served through the financial crisis
with Mr. Dimon. He joined JPMorgan in June 2007 from American
Express Co. to help build the bank's credit-card operation. In a
statement, Mr. Dimon called him one of his best-ever hires.
He was given charge of the entire consumer operation in 2012 and
elevated, with Mr. Pinto, to their firmwide roles in 2018.
JPMorgan's consumer and card operations have expanded
dramatically in recent years. The bank has bet big on its popular
Sapphire credit cards. And by the end of July, it will have
branches in every U.S. state but Alaska and Hawaii.
Mr. Smith said he and his wife had decided over the Christmas
holiday that 2021 would make a good last year. He has no plans to
take another banking job -- he turned down the CEO role at Wells
Fargo & Co. in 2019 -- and will remain an adviser to Mr. Dimon
and the bank following his retirement.
"If I wanted to keep working full time, I wouldn't be leaving,"
Mr. Smith said.
Write to David Benoit at david.benoit@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 18, 2021 09:54 ET (13:54 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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