JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon had emergency heart surgery as markets were crashing and coronavirus was spreading. Insiders told us exactly what happened in the 48 hours after he rushed to the hospital.
- JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon felt chest pains early on Thursday morning and took himself to the hospital, according to a person with knowledge of his actions.
- When Dimon was forced to undergo emergency heart surgery, the bank kicked off a contingency plan. The health scare came as global markets were being roiled by the spread of coronavirus.
- As Dimon's condition became known across the bank, senior leaders briefed their employees and reminded them that Dimon would want them focused on their clients.
- Without an announced timeline for Dimon's return, execs made an effort to emphasis that JPMorgan is in good hands.
- Dimon's surgery was kept to a small group of people to prevent a leak to the media and have the news come out during the trading day.
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JPMorgan's most senior investment bankers gather every Friday morning for a leadership meeting at the bank's Manhattan headquarters.
The event, which includes the senior-most leaders of the advisory and underwriting division, is a way for business leaders to come together to talk about trends across corporate America and beyond. When CEO Jamie Dimon is in town, he often attends, spending much of the meeting in listening mode and offering brief remarks.
Over the years, the meeting has come to offer something more. It's become a forum where a subset of the bank's leaders can discuss their most pressing issues. Days after legendary JPMorgan banker Jimmy Lee died suddenly in 2015, for example, the meeting served as a place for bankers to mourn and honor the dealmaker's legacy, according to a person who attended.
So it was no surprise that when they came together this past Friday, at 8 a.m. on the 13th floor of 383 Madison Ave., the bankers once again relied on the meeting as a critical touchpoint.
But at this Friday's meeting - with US stock markets poised to open with another sharp loss thanks to the global spread of coronavirus - the longest-serving CEO on Wall Street was notably absent.
Dimon's health scare came as global markets were in chaos
Sometime early the preceding morning, the 63-year-old CEO had felt chest pains in his Manhattan apartment. Conditioned to pay attention to his health thanks to a bout with throat cancer nearly 6 years before, Dimon took himself to the hospital.
He would miss the funeral for former General Electric chairman and CEO Jack Welch later that day at St. Patrick's Cathedral, which he planned to attend.
At the hospital, Dimon was soon diagnosed with an acute aortic dissection, a potentially life-threatening heart condition known to disproportionately affect men. He underwent emergency heart surgery.
This account of the first 48 hours after Dimon felt chest pains is based on interviews with eight current JPMorgan employees or ex-employees who are still in touch with colleagues. A spokesman declined to comment beyond a memo and filing sent out on Thursday evening, which said Dimon was recovering.
Dimon's health scare came during one of the busiest weeks for Wall Street in recent memory. As the coronavirus spreads across to the US, it's sent stock markets swooning and triggered corporate contingency plans. And an emergency rate cut from the Federal Reserve on Tuesday dealt a particularly harsh blow to bank shares.
JPMorgan has been working on its own plans. Under a plan code-named "Project Kennedy," the bank has asked 10% of its consumer bank staff to work from home, according to a report by Bloomberg. It's also restricted non-essential international travel for all employees, according to the report. CNBC reported this week that the company plans to move about half of its employees in the sales and trading division in New York and London to backup locations.
When the investment bankers' meeting began, Daniel Pinto and Gordon Smith, JPMorgan's co-presidents and the men charged with running the bank in Dimon's absence, updated the assembled crowd on Dimon's health, according to a person who attended. Dimon's chief of staff, Judy Miller, was also there.
It was the first time in memory that Smith, the head of the massive consumer banking arm of the company, had come to the meeting, said the person who attended and has been going for years.
The duo offered their support to the execs in the room, telling them that Dimon would want them to put their concern aside and focus on clients. Their parting message was call us if you need us, but otherwise get out there and serve clients, the person said. After roughly an hour, the leaders left to update their teams, the people said.
Memos urged teams to keep focused
A similar message was playing out across the bank.
In the trading division, one employee who asked for anonymity to discuss the mood, said it felt like any other day, with employees focused on the task at hand. Another person said many on the floor assume Dimon will be back to work at full strength sometime soon.
In the US wealth management division, chief Kristin Lemkau reminded her team to focus on bringing in new business. On Wednesday, Dimon had been at the unit's offsite, spending an hour with the business' senior leaders, according to a memo she sent to her troops on Friday.
Dimon was "in great spirits" on Wednesday, imploring the team to focus on advisers and hire more women and people from underrepresented groups, and challenging them not to accept false narratives, she wrote in the memo.
"Mostly, he spent time telling us how much he loves our business and how fired up he is for the growth opportunity ahead of us," Lemkau wrote.
Dimon has helmed JPMorgan for 15 years, and hasn't indicated he's ready to step aside any time soon. In January, he gave the same answer he did in 2018 about retirement plans: he'll step down in five years.
Still, the speed and decisiveness with which the leaders of the biggest US bank kicked its emergency plan into gear made an impression on some insiders.
But they've also had experience. In July 2014, Dimon was diagnosed with throat cancer, a revelation that kept him out of the office and close to home. Months later after a successful treatment of chemotherapy, he returned to work.
In January 2018, Dimon and the bank's board named Pinto, head of the firm's investment banking, trading and wholesale payments business, and Smith as co-presidents and co-chief operating officers. Since then, they've become familiar with most aspects of running the bank. The implication at the time was that the two men would serve, at the very least, as Dimon's short-term replacements.
JPMorgan kept Dimon's condition under wraps until Thursday night
Dimon's condition required the type of surgery that can last six to 10 hours and leave the patient facing an intense recovery period of several months.
The news of Dimon's surgery was kept to a small group of people to prevent a leak to the media and have the news come out during the trading day. JPMorgan declined to provide the name of the hospital where Dimon is recovering.
The preparations were so well controlled that two former managing directors who said they are in close contact with old colleagues said they had no idea through Thursday that anything was amiss.
JPMorgan's leadership team waited to alert employees until Dimon was out of surgery and his doctors had been able to update him on his condition, according to a person with knowledge of the planning.
Once they did, they wrote a memo and disseminated it to the bank's 265,000 employees. Minutes later, at 6:45 p.m., a press release hit Business Wire. The bank also published an 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Jamie "underwent successful emergency heart surgery to repair the dissection," Smith and Pinto wrote in the memo. "The good news is that it was caught early and the surgery was successful. He is awake, alert and recovering well."
By Friday, employees said Dimon was once again engaged and calling into work.
Succession planning in the spotlight
As the initial shock subsided, Wall Street pundits focused on who could fill Dimon's shoes.
While Pinto, 57, and Smith, 61, are the short-term successors, age makes both of them unlikely to be the long-term choice, according to insiders. For a more long term solution, talk often turns to Marianne Lake, the former CFO who now runs consumer lending; Jennifer Piepszak, the CFO who once ran cards; and Doug Petno, the head of commercial banking who is known to share Dimon's gift for inspiring his troops.
Lake was replaced by Piepszak as CFO in April 2019, in a move widely considered as grooming both executives for a shot at the top job.
"I don't think the board will take Daniel or Gordon because you want to give someone a little more runway," a former exec said, asking for anonymity to preserve his relationships at the bank.
No matter who it is, Dimon will be a tough boss to replace. His influence has been an asset when it comes to tough conversations with regulators and steering employees during times of turmoil. Coronavirus is threatening human lives and economic growth, stock markets are gyrating and M&A deals and IPOs are being pulled.
JPMorgan's shares fell 5.1% in Friday trading as the broader market tanked and bank stocks were still reeling from the Fed rate cut.
Without an announced timeline for Dimon's return or a clear successor down the road, execs made an effort to emphasis that JPMorgan is in good hands.
Lemkau may have summed it up best in her memo: "Heal fast, Jamie. We've got this."