Banker by Family Lineage

Jamie Dimon's grandfather fled Greece as a refugee and landed in New York in 1921. Changing his name from Papademetriou to Dimon likely helped him secure a job as a restaurant busboy. Family tales suggest he got sacked from the restaurant and later found work at a Greek bank. Climbing up the ladder, he eventually became vice president before moving to Shearson Hammill, a brokerage firm. Jamie's dad, Ted, also joined the same firm. Jamie, born on March 13, 1956, grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens, until he was 11. Then, the family briefly tried suburban life but quickly returned to the city. In school, Jamie excelled in sports and looked out for his twin brother. He was known for his strong ethics and didn't hesitate to challenge authority when he felt it was necessary.

The Demons became close with Sandy Weill when he acquired Shearson Hammill, where Ted worked. Jamie, while at Tufts University, impressed Weill with a paper he wrote about how Weill merged efficient and inefficient companies. Weill offered Jamie a summer job, where he wasn't afraid to speak up, even if it meant disagreeing with his boss sometimes.

After college, Dimon worked for a small consulting firm. He stood up for himself when he felt treated unfairly, and this experience made him see the dishonesty and bureaucracy in corporations. In 1980, he went to Harvard Business School, where he was a Democrat among Republicans and wore jeans in a crowd of preppy grad students. At Harvard, he met his future wife, fellow student Judy Kent, and graduated in 1982. The couple has three daughters, Julia, Kara, and Laura. Dimon says, “Until they were about 15, we never took a vacation without them. The kids... would say I was around a lot, even though I thought I wasn’t... because when I was there, I would be there.”

Sandy Weill's Acquisition Engine

Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and Morgan Stanley offered Dimon jobs. He sought advice from Weill, a family friend, and chair of the executive committee at American Express. Weill invited Dimon to join Amex. Later, political issues led to Weill's departure from his operating role. Dimon and Weill tried to buy Amex's struggling insurance unit, Fireman's Fund, with Warren Buffett's assistance, but the Amex board rejected the deal, leading to their resignations.

Afterward, Dimon and Weill purchased Commercial Credit, a Baltimore-based consumer lender. Despite a lower return on equity compared to other finance firms, they saw opportunities to cut costs and take the company public successfully. Dimon moved to Baltimore, while the rest of the team commuted from New York. He closely monitored Commercial Credit's financial performance, correcting inaccuracies. Dimon also engaged in tough politics, pushing out his supervisor, Greg Fitz-Gerald. He even challenged Weill, engaging in competitive bets on train stops and sunrise times.

Weill planned to make Commercial Credit an acquisition powerhouse, strengthening its financial position to buy struggling competitors. The 1987 stock market crash lowered Commercial's stock value, but it also made many financial stocks cheap, creating opportunities for buyers. Although Weill missed acquiring EF Hutton to Peter Cohen, he and Dimon succeeded in acquiring Primerica, a major financial company.

The Rise of Jamie Dimon

Soon after Drexel Burnham Lambert collapsed, causing a stir in the finance world, Primerica's stock climbed. Jamie Dimon, at the young age of 35, took over as its president, known for his sharp mind and business acumen. Unlike his colleague Sandy Weill, Dimon lacked humility and had no qualms about letting people go when necessary. He became the go-to person for layoffs. In 1992, Primerica made a significant investment in Travelers Corp., an insurance company struggling due to poor real estate ventures and the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew's devastation in South Florida. 

In 1993, Weill and Dimon made a bold move by acquiring the Shearson brokerage, essentially stripping it away from Shearson Lehman. They joined forces with Primerica's Smith Barney brokerage. Dimon wasn't thrilled when Weill brought in high-spending managers who, in Dimon's view, drove up costs without delivering enough value.

Conflict with Boss's Daughter

The press focused more on Dimon, causing his already strained bond with Weill to worsen. Weill was jealous of Dimon's reputation and became angry when people said Dimon was really running Travelers. Weill also began to suspect that Dimon was keeping information from him. Dimon had always been unafraid to challenge authority, which made his relationship with Weill combative for years. Weill later complained in his memoir that Dimon began to “see himself as my equal.”

In 1996, Jamie Dimon faced a conflict with Sandy Weill and his daughter, Jessica Bibliowicz, who became an executive VP at Smith Barney in 1994 and took charge of mutual fund sales in 1995. Dimon wanted the company to sell no-load mutual funds, but Bibliowicz and Weill disagreed with him. Dimon ultimately prevailed, and the no-load business turned out to be successful. However, he started to question Bibliowicz’s business abilities. Weill, being protective of his daughter, became upset when Dimon didn’t include her in an important planning committee and treated her dismissively in other situations. This led Bibliowicz to resign. Consequently, Dimon and Weill’s relationship suffered, despite the public perception that Dimon was Weill’s chosen successor. “I have never made it clear to anybody that Jamie is my successor,” Weill later stated to the media.

Salomon Brothers, Citicorp, and Long Term Capital Management were financial institutions

Salomon Brothers was once the most successful firm on Wall Street until a bond trading scandal led to its rescue by Warren Buffett in 1991. In 1997, Buffett’s chosen manager at Salomon, Deryck Maughan, proposed buying the firm to Sandy Weill. Buffett had never planned to keep Salomon for long due to several issues, including a significant investment in derivatives and a culture with questionable ethics. Despite these problems, Travelers decided to purchase Salomon that same year. Weill appointed Maughan as co-CEO alongside Jamie Dimon, who was furious about the decision. Shortly after the acquisition, the Asian financial crisis hit.

Later that year, Weill and Dimon, despite their differences, planned to buy Citicorp. Its CEO, John Reed, saw the financial industry consolidating and agreed to a deal with Weill. Dimon called it "the mother of all deals," but to his surprise, Weill refused to give him a seat on Citicorp's board. Weill appeared to be pushing Dimon out. Meanwhile, Salomon's trading unit continued losing money. Dimon closed it down, which helped destabilize the markets and led to the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), a large hedge fund founded by Salomon alumni. The LTCM crisis nearly caused a global financial collapse.

Travelers-Citicorp Merger Drama

The Travelers-Citicorp merger was approved by regulators, but tensions between Dimon and Maughan grew, leading to Dimon's dismissal by Reed and Weill. Dimon was shocked but handled his departure graciously, despite feeling devastated. His wife, Judy Dimon, was upset by how he was treated. Dimon cooperated with presenting his departure as a mutual agreement, although Weill later blamed their relationship breakdown on Dimon's desire to replace him. Critics viewed Dimon as self-centered and quick-tempered, but his defenders believed he was unfairly treated by Weill, who expected Dimon to do the hard work while others took credit. Dimon admitted to being aggravating, acknowledging that he had caused friction with Weill. After leaving with a $30 million severance package, Citicorp's stock declined, and other top executives left the bank. Despite receiving numerous job offers, Dimon, then 42, waited almost a year and a half before accepting a new position.

Bank One

Bank One, led by John McCoy, was formed through a series of deals that brought together regional banks into a decentralized entity with different cultures and systems. Its First U.S.A. credit card subsidiary was known for poor service and had the most customer complaints in the industry. First Chicago NBD was created from a merger that hadn't fully integrated before becoming part of Bank One. McCoy, who orchestrated this complex merger, allowed the acquired banks' managers to continue running their companies as they saw fit, which made operational improvements difficult. Interestingly, when McCoy was ousted, he suggested Dimon as a possible replacement.

Dimon negotiated a favorable deal that gave him both the chairman and CEO roles. He sought advice from McCoy's father, John, who had led the bank for many years. Dimon streamlined the board and concentrated his authority, recruiting top talent from Citigroup despite restrictions in his severance agreement. He offered them short-term contracts and lower salaries, but the potential for Bank One's growth made it attractive. He also made tough decisions with shareholders, like cutting dividends. Dimon focused on the details of banking rather than large acquisitions or financial engineering. He reduced staff by 12,000, introduced branch-level financial reporting, and emphasized incentive pay. He demanded quick action, eliminated consultants, stopped outsourcing information systems, and removed unprofitable customers from the corporate loan portfolio. Despite challenges like the Internet bubble burst and the aftermath of September 11, 2001, Bank One remained profitable under Dimon's leadership.

JPMorgan Chase

In 2003, JPMorgan Chase's CEO, William B. Harrison Jr., sought a successor and proposed to Jamie Dimon that the bank buy Bank One. The deal was completed in 2004, and Harrison stepped down gracefully. Dimon, now CEO of the merged banks, approached his new role with the same careful, detail-focused management style. He decided to avoid the mortgage securitization market, despite initially wanting to expand in it. Recognizing the risks by 2006, he sold $12 billion in subprime mortgages the bank had issued. This decision steered the bank clear of the looming subprime crisis. Even though analysts criticized it, the market's subsequent downturn proved Dimon's foresight. In 2007, JPMorgan Chase faced substantial losses due to home equity loans, totaling $564 million, prompting them to boost reserves by $1 billion.

In March 2008, Dimon took center stage in rescuing the financial system. He orchestrated the purchase of Bear Stearns, teetering on the brink of collapse, after intense 48-hour negotiations, backed by government support. Later in August, when Lehman Brothers faced a similar fate, Dimon and other major banks, including Citibank and Bank of America, examined the situation closely. However, despite efforts to find a solution, no one stepped in to save Lehman. Dimon and his team urged Lehman's leaders to explore emergency options like an industry bailout or government aid, but these attempts failed. Lehman's downfall sent shockwaves through the markets, leading to a plunge. Throughout the crisis, Dimon played a crucial role behind the scenes, guiding JPMorgan Chase's response. Despite suffering significant losses, totaling $18.8 billion, the bank fared better than many others.

Despite facing many challenges, including a shaky market and failing companies, Dimon’s bank experienced its own issues but managed to stabilize and move forward. Like other banks, it received government aid for recovery, eventually gaining market share and resuming acquisitions of appealing targets. Dimon emphasized, “We’re going to succeed because over an extended period of time we built a good company, and not because one of our competitors runs into a lamppost and is critically injured… Everybody’s got their own value system. In mine, I want to be buried with a little self-respect one day.”