Who Is Jamie Dimon?

James “Jamie” Dimon is Chairman, President and CEO of JPMorgan Chase ($JPM), one of the four largest banks in the U.S.  (The ‘other three’:  Bank of America, Wells Fargo & Citigroup).

He was born to Theodore and Themis Dimon in New York City on March 13, 1956.  His paternal grandfather was a Greek immigrant; also a banker, from Athens.  Dimon has a fraternal twin brother, Ted.

He majored in Psychology and Economics at Tufts University.  He then worked in management consulting for a couple of years, before enrolling at Harvard Business School for an MBA (awarded 1982).  During Harvard summer vacations he worked at Goldman Sachs.  After graduating, he joined Sandy Weill as an assistant at American Express ($AXP).  Dimon's father, Theodore, was an executive vice president at American Express at the time.

Weill left American Express for Commercial Credit in 1985.  Dimon followed and was appointed as CFO.  During a series of M&A transactions around 1998, Dimon and Weill succeeded in forming the largest financial services conglomerate internationally, today known as Citigroup.  However, Weill ended up firing Dimon in November 1998 (Kellogg School of Management interviews, 2006).

In March 2000, Dimon was appointed as CEO of Bank One, the nation's fifth largest bank. When JPMorgan Chase acquired Bank One in July 2004, Dimon became president and chief operating officer of the combined company.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

“Buffett… personally owns shares of J.P. Morgan and applauded Dimon’s shares ideas on capital management.  And today, Alan Schwartz, the executive chairman of Guggenheim Partners and the man who handed Bear Stearns over to Dimon in that seminal deal, praised Dimon’s integrity.  Speaking on CNBC, Schwartz said the discussions during those turbulent times included many promises from Dimon.  They weren’t contractual obligations, just his word.  Even as things continued to get worse, and the banks found themselves in a blizzard of problems and bad press, Dimon didn’t back down from any single promise Schwartz said.  “His word was more important,” Schwartz added.”

But, The Huffington Post had this to say about Dimon:

“JPMorgan Chase has become, in essence, the poster child for bad Wall Street behavior, and it will be made to pay for having earned that mantle.  Even more unfortunately for the bank, it has no one to blame for this mess but itself -- and its imperious CEO, Jamie Dimon.

… there was very likely a massive breach of fiduciary duty under Dimon's watch, and a reckless disregard for good corporate behavior. That in itself is enough to cast serious doubt on Dimon's ability to lead the bank into the future, and necessitates his immediate departure.”

Love him, or hate him?

While no-one would probably question Dimon’s status as poster child for Wall Street, I cannot agree with the Huffington Post blogger (above) adding the suffix “behavior” to the preceding statement. 

The grouping together – as “Wall Street” – of unrelated, individual people and/or parties, and then collectively blaming this amorphous group – that includes tens of thousands of innocent, hard-working people – for the “bad behavior” of few… shows a complete lack of objectivity, and borders on sensationalist reporting.

Disclosure: no positions