When the largest U.S. bank last shook up its leadership two years ago, about a half-dozen names appeared on lists of Dimon’s potential heirs. But another overhaul announced Tuesday pushed two women toward the front of the field: Marianne Lake and Jennifer Piepszak.The bank named them co-heads of its massive consumer and community banking business, a spot that was held by one of Dimon’s two lieutenants, co-President Gordon Smith, who’s retiring at the end of the year.
Lake, 51, and familiar to the bank’s investors as its former chief financial officer, has long been seen as a potential successor. She got a crack at running a major business line in 2019 when Dimon put her in charge of consumer lending, a group of businesses that generate about a fourth of the company’s revenue.
Lake will run payments, commerce and lending, which includes credit cards, home lending and auto financing, Smith wrote in a letter to staff. Piepszak will lead consumer and business banking, as well as wealth management.Lake oversaw the bank’s lending to households during a year in which millions of Americans lost jobs or work — at least temporarily — forcing them to juggle bills as Congress argued over rounds of stimulus payments.
Dimon announced the promotions as JPMorgan shareholders held their annual meeting, and a week before he and other U.S. banking CEOs are set to testify to Congress. In past appearances, the group has been grilled by lawmakers over the industry’s slow progress in elevating women and diversifying its leadership.