30 Inspiring Facts Everybody Should Know About Jamie Dimon

31 December 2018, 4:07 pm EST By Ruby Karnick

Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, has known for producing over 100% shareholder return since he took the helm in the year 2006. Here are some interesting facts to know about the American business executive:

From the year 2008 to 2011, he was named as one of the best CEO's in the Institutional Investor's list by the All-America Executive Team survey.
According to a University of Oxford research, his leadership style is characterized as "paradigmatic of 'founder centrism' – which is a founder's mindset, an ethical disposition towards the shareholder collective, and an intense focus on exponential value creation."
He is one of the few chief executives in banking sector to have become a billionaire. This was partly due to his US$485 million stake in JPMorgan Chase.
He was listed in the Time magazine's 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2011 lists of the world's 100 most influential people.
Jamie Dimon was born on March 13, 1956, in New York City to Greek immigrants Theodore Dimon and Themis Dimon. His father and grandfather were both stockbrockers at Shearson.
It is said that Dimon's real family name was Papademetriou, which his paternal grandfather Panos Papdemetriou changed to Dimon in an effort to make it sound more French.
He has an older brother Peter and a fraternal twin brother Ted - Theodore Dimon Jr., the founder of the Dimon Institute in New York.
Dimon majored in Economics and Psychology at Tufts University. He reportedly worked at Shearson during his summer break from Tuffts. Following his graduation worked in a management consulting for two years.
He earned a Master of Business Administration degree as a Baker Scholar in the year 1982 from Harvard Business School. He worked at Goldman Sachs during the summer break at Harvard.
He reportedly started selling greeting cards, his first business venture, when he was only six years old. At the age of 9, he told his father that when he grew up he will make a fortune. Even as a young man, he was seen reading J Paul Getty's "How to Be Rich."

His career started as an assistant at American Express, persuaded by Sandy Weill, who made him turn down offers from Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, even though the compensation was less at American Express.
It was reported that Dimon was brought into Sandy Weill's attention, by Dimon's father, Theodore Dimon, who was serving as the Executive Vice President at American Express. Theodore has passed on an essay written by Jamie.
He accepted full responsibility for the infamous 2012 London Whale crisis, tat led to a loss of $6.2 billion, and stated that the strategy was "flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly executed, and poorly monitored."
In an interview with Vanity Fair in November 2012, he clearly said "We made a mistake. I am absolutely responsible. The buck stops with me."
In the year 2008, he led JPMorgan to buy Bear Sterns and Washington Mutual, which were on the brink of failure, savings thousands of jobs. It was a brave move as other institutions considered the take over as risky and dangerous.
Even before the 2008 financial crisis, he made sure that JPMorgan Chase steered away from Mortgage-backed securities (MBS). In fact, JPM was one of the very few investment banks that discouraged MBS practice.
In December 2016, he joined a business forum assembled by Donald Trump to provide strategic and policy advice on economic issues.
It is reported that during his time as the CEO of Bank One Corporation from the year 2000 to 2005, he never ever attended a single black-tie charity event, although he was expected to attend as a corporate leader.
Dimon is known for taking a more conservative approach in investment banking, looking at what could possibly go wrong, simulating how JP Morgan would function under a depressed economy.
In March 2008, Dimon served as a Class A board member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

It is reported that he carries a penned list of questions in his breast pocket for his subordinates, every Monday and crosses off items as he sees them in the hallways.
After American Express, he followed his mentor Sandy Weill to Commercial Credit, Smith Barney and Citigroup. In November 1998, he was asked to resign from the position of President of Citgroup, following a falling out with Weill.
He became the CEO of Bank One, the fifth largest bank in March 2000. Four years later, when JPMorgan Chase took over Bank One, he was appointed as the President and COO of the combined company.
He became the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the leading U.S bank, on December 31, 2005 and the very next year was named as the Chairman and President.
In the year 2009, Dimon was considered one of "The TopGun CEOs" by Brendan Wood International, an advisory agency.
In the year 2011, he received a pay package of $23 million, which is more than any other bank CEO in the United States.
In the year 1983, he married Judith Kent, a classmate in Harvard Business School. The couple have three daughters - Julia, Laura and Kara Leigh.
It is said that the present billionaire was once so broke that he could not even afford for his first date with Judith Kent.
However, on their 15th anniversary, he gifted her with a stock certificate, officially handing over one-third of his total net worth, stating she deserved it.
In the year 2014, he was diagnosed with throat cancer and he underwent eight weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.