Dimon's Heir At JPMorgan Still Hazy As 'Five More Years' Tick By

(Bloomberg) -- Halfway through Jamie Dimon’s special incentive to stay five more years atop JPMorgan Chase & Co., insiders are predicting more senior leadership changes to help potential successors gather experience.

A management shuffle in mid-2021 put two talented deputies — Jennifer Piepszak and Marianne Lake — into the spotlight as the board prepared to grant Dimon a bonus if he remains chief executive officer another half-decade. But with neither the clear frontrunner, colleagues say the two consumer-banking co-heads will likely need to tackle new assignments before one is ready to run the whole company.

Meanwhile, Piepszak has expressed reticence in the past about taking the top job, while Lake has at least entertained opportunities elsewhere, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing private talks. And Dimon shows no signs he views his retention package as a career closer.

Such is the endlessly evolving succession buzz atop the nation’s biggest bank, where life under 67-year-old Dimon is more profitable than ever, and life after him is just as hazy. The question of who might steward the firm is one that looms over the industry — offering its most prominent perch as well as responsibility for a $3.9 trillion balance sheet.

The limbo at JPMorgan compares with the crisp succession planning this year at Morgan Stanley, where longtime leader James Gorman, 65, announced he was ready to conduct a bake-off for his job. In the ensuing months, Gorman and the board reviewed a slate of viable candidates, made their pick and persuaded the others to stick around — setting up an unusually smooth handoff for Jan. 1. 

One key difference is that Gorman said he was eager to try something new. Dimon’s passion is overseeing the behemoth he helped build. 

This account of the state of play in JPMorgan is based on interviews with more than a dozen current and former executives and others close to the firm’s leadership.

Though a JPMorgan spokesperson declined to comment, the bank has repeatedly offered assurances that its succession planning is robust and consistently updated. As Dimon himself told investors this year: “The board is very comfortable that we’ve got really top choices here.”

JPMorgan has already established that President Daniel Pinto, 60, is ready to take over in an emergency or accelerated handoff. He co-led the firm in 2020 when Dimon underwent heart surgery.

The bigger question is which person the bank might choose from the next generation for an orderly transition and a long tenure. 

That’s why most eyes are on Lake, 54, and Piepszak, 53. Insiders say others are also seen as entering the fray — such as Troy Rohrbaugh and Marc Badrichani, who co-lead markets and securities services, as well as payments head Takis Georgakopoulos and chief strategy and growth officer Sanoke Viswanathan.

Succession is a formidable challenge for Dimon, putting his legacy at stake. He has run JPMorgan for 18 years, growing it through the 2008 financial crisis and then adapting it to an era of stiffer regulation and digital banking. He came out ahead again during this year’s turmoil in regional banking, scooping up First Republic to bolster JPMorgan’s presence in Silicon Valley.

While Dimon’s track record may give the next CEO stable footing, it has also raised questions about who else is up to the task. 

Read a Big Take: Dimon Is More Crucial Than Ever to the Bank He Built

Piepszak has gained momentum as the top candidate in recent years, clinching a series of promotions and building relationships with other senior executives, colleagues said. Though she has privately told several people that she isn’t sure she wants the job, one executive said that’s not the case today. Regardless, if the board ultimately wants her, it will approach her. 

Lake, Piepszak’s close friend and mentor-turned-co-head atop the firm’s giant consumer banking business, has extended her tenure as a senior executive known for an in-the-weeds understanding of the firm. 

Her name has come up in a number of CEO searches and, in some cases, she has entertained overtures. She interviewed to run Wells Fargo & Co. in 2019 and this year held preliminary talks with PayPal Holdings Inc. about that firm’s top job. 

Rising Together

Piepszak and Lake both joined JPMorgan’s corporate and investment bank early in their careers.

Lake arrived more than two decades ago, starting in the UK, and rose through finance positions in the corporate and investment bank to become controller in 2007. That position ordinarily wouldn’t offer much exposure to the unit’s top brass, but when the financial crisis erupted she impressed then-co-heads Steve Black and Bill Winters as they raced to integrate Bear Stearns. 

Lake earned a spot in a small group of rising leaders within the firm, alongside Ryan McInerney, Guy America and Barry Sommers, among others. Around the same time, Charlie Scharf, then running JPMorgan’s retail business, needed someone to handle the unit’s finances and enlisted Lake, orchestrating her jump from Wall Street to Main Street banking. Scharf now runs Wells Fargo.

A couple years later, Lake brought in Piepszak for a finance role in the mortgage unit. Both impressed their bosses and kept climbing. After the London Whale trading blowup, Dimon chose Lake as JPMorgan’s chief financial officer, calling her “an outstanding choice for this critically important role.” 

In the meantime, Piepszak scored a series of promotions within the consumer bank to ultimately take over as head of card services in early 2017. Her appointment came mere months after the firm had launched its wildly popular Sapphire Reserve credit card. JPMorgan leaned on the business for growth throughout her tenure. 

Then came a major shuffle. In 2019, Lake — by that point considered a frontrunner to succeed Dimon for years — was tapped to oversee consumer lending. Piepszak, still relatively unknown outside JPMorgan, was named the firm’s next CFO, launching her into the realm of potential successors. 

That arrangement lasted for two years, until the firm announced Gordon Smith’s plans to retire as co-president and hand off the consumer and community bank he had led for nearly a decade. Lake and Piepszak were assigned to oversee it together.

The unit is on track for record revenue this year. Lake and Piepszak split their day-to-day oversight: Lake has payments, lending and commerce, while Piepszak has banking and wealth management. 

One hiccup was JPMorgan’s botched acquisition of college financial-planning website Frank in 2021. JPMorgan sued the founder, Charlie Javice, and one of her lieutenants last year, alleging they concocted millions of fake customers to mislead the bank into acquiring the firm for $175 million. Javice and her deputy were later indicted in federal court. Both have pleaded not guilty and dispute JPMorgan’s allegations.

Dimon called the acquisition a “huge mistake.” But the financial hit was negligible: the price amounted to three hours of JPMorgan’s revenue in 2021.

And the boss has stopped notably short of publicly criticizing his deputies, saying he doesn’t want the firm to be so “terrified of errors that we don’t do anything.”

This year, Lake and Piepszak were put in charge of integrating First Republic. Dimon has praised the progress as “excellent.”

Read more: JPMorgan Has a Master Plan to Beat Competitors in Silicon Valley

Anyone who’s watched the dial spin endlessly at JPMorgan knows that a long roster of potential CEO contenders has emerged under Dimon only to move on, sometimes tiring of the wait or washing out. 

But a widely held view among those close to JPMorgan’s leadership is that there are still ways for Lake and Piepszak to advance their careers there — whether that means taking sole control of the consumer division they now run jointly, or moving over to the firm’s Wall Street operations. 

Such an option came up recently: Both were asked whether they might want to move to the investment bank as Carlos Hernandez — its executive chair of investment and corporate banking — retired. Both preferred to stay in their current roles.

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