When Jamie Dimon was wheeled into the working room for an emergency coronary heart surgical procedure, he didn’t know whether or not he would make it out—what he did know was he had no huge regrets in life.
The 69-year-old JPMorgan CEO has change into the face of American banking over his decades-long profession—and was even at one level, Wall Avenue’s savior. He’s well-known for navigating the financial institution practically unscathed by means of the 2008 housing crash and for his deft actions in serving to prop up the U.S. monetary system.
However round 5 years in the past, life handed him a uncooked deal.
After having already staved off throat most cancers a decade prior, Dimon skilled an acute aortic dissection, or a tear within the interior layer of the physique’s principal artery, and needed to rush to the hospital. The situation is uncommon—solely about 9 folks per 100,000 expertise it yearly.
“It felt like somebody caught a knife in my coronary heart,” he mentioned in an interview with former Wall Avenue Journal journalist Monica Langley’s Workplace Hours: Enterprise Version.
But, because the long-time chief of a Wall Avenue icon, Dimon, confronted along with his attainable demise, considered his firm first.
Dimon known as his spouse Judith Kent earlier than he went into surgical procedure and requested her to name JPMorgan’s normal counsel and the lead director on the board to inform them “precisely” what was mistaken with him so they might act appropriately. Survival odds for the process had been round 50-50 and, taking no probabilities, JPMorgan appointed co-CEOs in case he had been to die.
However Dimon, regardless of the chances, was by his personal account seemingly calm and even thanked the nurses and medical doctors getting ready to function on him—he later purchased them a brand new fridge and sanitizing machine as a thanks reward.
Life after surgical procedure
When he emerged from the process after greater than eight hours, Dimon started residing extra intentionally, though he mentioned didn’t really feel any huge regrets or an urge to shift his life path.
“I really like what I do, and that didn’t change,” Dimon mentioned.
Regardless of the well being scare, Dimon has not slowed by a longshot. He has a penchant for waking up earlier than daybreak and studying 5 newspapers earlier than diving into work and as of final yr was taking over squash. The identical goes for his work life. In 2023, Dimon oversaw JPMorgan’s acquisition of First Republic Financial institution, which elevated its deposits by $92 billion and gave it a major inventory increase.
Final yr, Dimon walked again his plans to step away from the CEO position within the subsequent 5 years. He now has no particular timeline for stepping down, he instructed Langley, however mentioned he might keep on as chairman after he leaves the highest job.
He’ll retire, he mentioned, “When they’re prepared and it’s time for me to go—or some mixture of the 2.”
