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.
But there’s one thing the Wall Street veteran does know: The qualities he wants to see in his successor, and he doesn’t need that individual to be the “smartest” person across the board. What he is looking for is the ability to rally and shape a workforce of more than 300,000 people, leading them through times of both economic prosperity and downturns.
Dimon has led JPMorgan Chase for almost two decades, and shocked analysts last year when he announced his retirement was no longer five years away—a line he has famously repeated whenever he was asked the question previously.
And while Dimon seems fairly comfortable with the fact he won’t be leaving JPMorgan entirely when his CEO successor his named (he is likely to stay on as chairman), his successor will have large shoes to fill.
What he wants to see from that person is “the heart and the soul, and curiosity and work ethic and respect” Dimon told the ‘Office Hours: Business Edition’ podcast in an episode released this week.
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.”
Who will that coach be?
A handful of names have been touted by JPMorgan itself as potential successors to Dimon. In its 2024 proxy statement, the bank explicitly named a handful of people in its executive planning section: Jennifer Piepszak, Troy Rohrbaugh, Marianne Lake, Mary Erdoes and Daniel Pinto—the man previously flagged as being Dimon’s pick for CEO in the case of a crisis.
However, Pinto, who served as Dimon’s right-hand for seven years, announced in January he will be retiring in 2026. A knock-on effect of that decision was that Piepszak was confirmed as his successor and claims to have no interest in taking the top job.
“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.”
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