JPMorgan hands promotion to possible Jamie Dimon successor Marianne Lake
JPMorgan Chase has handed a new job to a top banker who is seen as a possible successor to its legendary, 69-year-old boss Jamie Dimon.
Marianne Lake — the 55-year-old head of the financial giant’s consumer and community banking units — has been tapped to run JPMorgan’s strategic growth office as well as its overseas consumer business, a source close to the bank’s leadership confirmed.
In a memo to staffers, CEO Dimon and president Daniel Pinto wrote that Lake “will continue to build on the achievements of the two banking units “as we expand our consumer franchise beyond the US.”
The news of Lake’s new responsibilities was first reported by Bloomberg News.
A 25-year veteran of JPMorgan and a graduate of the UK’s University of Reading, Lake is seen as the main frontrunner to take over from Jamie Dimon when he eventually leaves the firm’s top job.
Other contenders include Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh, co-CEOs of JPMorgan’s investment banking operations, and Mary Erdoes, who leads the firm’s asset and wealth management unit.
She is taking over her new role from Sanoke Viswanathan, 50, who in resigned as the head of the bank’s international consumer and wealth unit to take over as CEO of FactSet, a financial data provider, according to the source.
Dimon and Pinto added that Viswanathan had “made an indelible and positive impact” on the bank, which had “greatly benefited from his entrepreneurial mindset.”
A veteran of more than three decades at JPMorgan, chief operating officer Jennifer Piepszak was seen as another name in the frame.
But she withdrew from the race to replace the current chief executive in January, insisting she did not want the top job.
On Monday, Dimon brushed off fresh questions from Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo about the company’s leadership succession plan, insisting that he was retirement was “several years away.”
The Queens native, who raked in $39 million last year as JPMorgan posted record profits, told the financial news network that he could stay on as executive chairman for a few years once he stands down as CEO.
“Obviously, it’s always up to God and the board,” Dimon told Bartiromo on Monday. “I love what I do.”
Speculation has swirled on Wall Street about Dimon’s future after his name was repeatedly floated as a possible Treasury Secretary pick during last year’s presidential campaign.
When the banking veteran told JPMorgan’s investor day in May of last year that his succession timeline was not five years anymore, it led to an immediate decline in the firm’s stock price.
Dimon also has another reason to stick around: the bank is building a $3 billion, 60-story headquarters at 270 Park Ave in midtown Manhattan that will include a yoga studio, a food court and even a pub.
He has been a vocal critic of working from home and is slowly forcing staffers back to the office five days a week, scrapping a Covid-era policy that he sees as leading to lower levels of productivity.
