Jamie Dimon

James "Jamie" Dimon (born March 13, 1956) is the current CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co as well as a Class A director of the Board of Directors of the New York Federal Reserve, a three year term which started January 2007.^[1][2] Dimon was named to Time Magazine′s 2006, 2008 and 2009 lists of the world's 100 most influential people.

Biography

James "Jamie" Dimon was born in New York City, to Theodore and Themis Dimon, and attendedBrowning School.^[3]

Later, he majored in psychology and economics at Tufts University, before earning an M.B.A.degree from Harvard Business School along with fellow classmates Jeffrey Immelt and Seth Klarman. Upon his graduation in 1982, Sandy Weill convinced him to turn down offers fromGoldman Sachs,^{[citation needed]} where he worked the previous summer, and Morgan Stanley to join him as an assistant at American Express.

Although Weill could not offer the same amount of money as the investment banks, Weill promised Dimon that he would have "fun".^{[citation needed]} In a power struggle, Weill left American Express in 1985 and Dimon followed him. The two then took over Commercial Credit, aconsumer finance company, from Control Data, which became the vehicle that Dimon and Weill would use to propel themselves to the top of the financial world.^{[citation needed]} Through a series of unprecedented mergers and acquisitions, in 1998 Dimon and Weill were able to form the largest financial services conglomerate the world had ever seen, Citigroup.

Dimon left Citigroup in November 1998. It was rumored at the time that he and Weill got into an argument in 1997 over the perceived lack of promotion given by Dimon to Weill's daughter, Jessica M. Bibliowicz,^[4] although that happened over a year before his departure and most accounts cite many other more substantive issues as the real reasons.^[5] In his 2005 University of Chicago Graduate School of BusinessFireside Chat and 2006 Kellogg School of Management interviews, Dimon stated that he was fired by Weill.

In March 2000 Dimon became CEO of Bank One, then the nation's fifth largest bank.^[6] He became President and Chief Operating Officer ofJ.P. Morgan Chase in mid-2004 when it purchased Bank One.

In March 2008 he was a board member of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and CEO of J.P. Morgan and made decisions in connection with the $55 billion loan to J.P. Morgan to bail out Bear Stearns.

Following the acquisition of Washington Mutual by JPMorganChase, President Barack Obama had this to say about Dimon's handling of the real-estate crash, credit crisis, and the banking collapse affecting corporations nationwide, including major financial institutions like Bank Of America, Citibank, and Wachovia:

"You know, keep in mind, though there are a lot of banks that are actually pretty well managed, JPMorgan being a good example, Jamie Dimon, the CEO there, I don't think should be punished for doing a pretty good job managing an enormous portfolio."

During the 2008–2009 presidential process, there was some speculation that Dimon would serve in the Obama Administration as United States Secretary of the Treasury. Obama eventually named President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Timothy Geithner to the position.^[7]

Under Dimon's leadership with the acquisitions on his watch, JPMorganChase has now become the leading U.S. bank in domestic assets under management, market capitalization value, and publicly traded stock value. JPMorganChase is also the #1 credit card provider in the United States.^{[citation needed]}

In 2009, Mr. Dimon was considered one of "The TopGun CEOs" by Brendan Wood International, an advisory agency.^[8][9]

[edit]New York Federal Reserve Director

Dimon's role at the New York Fed "includes approving the Bank's budget, overseeing operations, and appointing the Bank's officers."^[10]

[edit]Federal TARP Funds

As JPMorgan Chase's Chairman, President & CEO, Dimon oversaw the transfer of $25 billion from the US Treasury Department to JPMorgan Chase on October 28, 2008 via the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).^[11] This was the fifth largest amount transferred under Section A of TARP^[12] to help troubled assets related to residential mortgages.

JPMorgan Chase advertised in February 2009 that they would be using their capital base monetary strength to acquire new businesses,^[13]primarily due to the funds provided by TARP and in direct violation of TARP’s main intent; to help troubled assets related to residentialmortgages and all obligations as spelled out in TARP.

The US Government, as of February 2009, had yet to move forward in enforcing TARP's intent in funding JP Morgan Chase with $25,000,000,000.^[11] Dimon was quoted, during the week of February 1, 2009, in the face of the US government's lack of federal enforcement, as saying

JPMorgan would be fine if we stopped talking about the damn nationalization of banks. We've got plenty of capital. To policymakers, I say where were they? … They approved all these banks. Now they're beating up on everyone, saying look at all these mistakes, and we're going to come and fix it.^[13][14]

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan CEO

Of the US's nine largest banks, JPMorgan Chase was arguably the second healthiest bank, and did not need to take TARP funds (the other was Wells Fargo). In order to encourage smaller banks with troubled assets to accept this money, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson allegedly coerced the CEOs of the nine largest banks to accept TARP money under short notice.^[15]

[edit]Relations with the Obama Administration

Dimon is a Democrat and worked in President Obama's adopted hometown of Chicago. After Obama took office and JPMorgan Chase repaid its bailout money more quickly than most, he became influential in the White House.^[16] Dimon was one of three CEO's found by theAssociated Press—along with Lloyd Blankfein and Vikram Pandit—to have had liberal access to United States Secretary of the TreasuryTimothy Geithner in the seven months after the financial crisis in fall 2008

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