Only one woman—Jane Fraser at Citigroup—has ever led a top U.S. bank. Could the second do so at JPMorgan Chase?
Until Jamie Dimon leaves his CEO post, rumors of his successor will dominate Wall Street smalltalk and constantly pop up on Bloomberg Television and CNBC, where he’s a frequent guest. His departure, to be clear, isn’t imminent—he received a bonus in 2021 north of $50 million designed to keep him in place until 2026—and he’s still enjoying his role, with one person familiar telling Fortune, “He loves it. He absolutely loves it.”
Helping build the largest U.S. bank by assets—about $3.9 trillion, as of Dec. 31—has included shepherding JPMorgan through a series of challenges, including the 2007-2008 financial crisis, and scooping up the distressed First Republic Bank last year. His impact has been undeniable: JPM shares are up more than 337% since he took over in January 2006.
Keeping that winning streak going won’t be easy. But Marianne Lake or Jennifer Piepsza, both of whom were described by a former coworker as “terrific” and wonderful leaders, could be asked to fill those shoes. “I had the good fortune to work for [Piepszak] directly and indirectly in my early career, and learned so much, including the importance of paying it forward,” the executive added.
Piepszak is a 29-year veteran of JPMorgan, a tenure that includes serving as CFO from May 2019 to May 2021. Lake has been there for 20 years in a variety of roles that includes CEO of consumer lending, from 2019 to 2021, and CFO, from 2013 to 2019.
Each was tipped as a possible Dimon successor in 2021 when named as co-CEOs of consumer and community banking, or CCB, a division with $643 billion in assets as of 2023. Just last week, the bank announced role changes for both Piepszak and Lake, the latter of whom now will be sole CEO of CBB, which serves some 80 million consumers and 6 million small businesses.
Fraser, who assumed the top spot at Citi in March 2021, has spoken several times about about while she may be the first female CEO of a major global bank, she hopes and expects there will be others soon.
Carole Crawford, founder of Fincap 360 and global board chair of the nonprofit 100 Women in Finance, or 100WF, said the possibility of a woman succeeding Dimon was exciting. “The multiplier effect can be extremely powerful—every woman added to the C-suite results in four additional women in senior leadership,” Crawford said. “Given the size and prominence of JPM, having a woman at the helm could be impactful throughout the industry.”
Women run barely 10% of Fortune 500 companies, so the largest U.S. bank selecting either Piepszak or Lake would be especially noteworthy. But they aren’t the only ones in contention.
In March 2020, when Dimon had emergency heart surgery, it was Daniel Pinto, along with Gordon Smith, both co-presidents and co-COOs at the time, who stepped in and ran the bank for a few months. Dimon called Pinto “an exceptional partner” in the bank’s Jan. 25 statement on executive role changes. (Smith left the bank in 2022.)
“Daniel and his team have built the finest Corporate and Investment Bank in the world, and now we can increasingly take advantage of his extraordinary capabilities across the firm as we continue to jointly manage the company, with his focus on the execution of our lines-of-business priorities,” Dimon said.
Another possible successor is Troy Rohrbaugh, who along with Piepszak is becoming co-CEOs of an “expanded Commercial & Investment Bank, which will bring together our major wholesale businesses of Global Investment Banking, Commercial Banking, Corporate Banking as well as Markets, Securities Services and Global Payments,” the company said. Rohrbaugh is a 19-year JPM veteran.
“Troy is a fantastic risk manager,” one long-time collegue told Fortune, “but more importantly, he’s down-to-earth and very approachable, which most people don’t associate with a Wall Street trading head.”
