Jamie Dimon isn’t sure when he’s going to hand over the keys to the kingdom—or rather, leadership of America’s biggest bank.
When asked if that person didn’t need to simply be the smartest person in the room, he agreed “no,” explaining: “Really the smartest person in the room is the person who gets the most out of everybody. They may not be as smart as everybody—we have some brilliant people who work here, I’m not as good at certain things as some of those people—but they’re the pied piper, they’re the coach.”
Dimon has indeed coached JPM’s leadership team through some tumultuous times: the coronavirus pandemic, the 2008 financial crisis, and the acquisition of Bear Stearns, to name a few.
Leadership is like a “sports analogy,” the 69-year-old CEO continued. “You’ve seen it … one bad player could make the whole team terrible but a great coach is extraordinary.”
“Jenn has made clear her preference for a senior operating role working closely with Jamie and in support of the top leadership team, and does not want to be considered for the CEO position at this time,” a JPMorgan spokesman said at the time. “She is deeply committed to the future of the company and our team and wants to help in any way she can.”
The bank has made it clear that its next leader is likely to be one of its own, a familiar face to shareholders, customers, and markets alike. But Dimon added that while the next CEO will “probably be an insider,” they would also be eyeing external candidates as a “discipline.”
And in typical Dimon fashion, he ruled out any concrete timelines on when this candidate may take over. Dimon didn’t have an “exact date,” he added: “It’s when they are ready and it’s time for me to go—some combination of the two.”
