Jamie Dimon (pictured), the chief executive officer of the largest U.S. bank, JPMorgan, is currently in recovery after an emergency heart surgery, as revealed by the company’s chief operating officers.
Dimon (63), recently experienced an acute aortic dissection, which is a tear in the inner lining of the aorta blood vessel, as the letter informs. The surgery took place on Thursday morning.
Smith and Pinto reported that the surgery was successful and that the bank’s chief executive officer is “awake, alert, and recovering well.”
Meanwhile, the bank’s board directed the two chief operating officers to take over the leadership of the company until the chief executive officer can return. However, the news had caused JPMorgan shares to fall over 1% after the news was originally announced.
Dimon’s work at JPMorgan
Dimon himself is considered to be among the most powerful people on Wall Street and has acted as the chief executive officer of JPMorgan for the last 15 years, since 2005.
He had also been the board chairman since 2006. Yale University’s management professor, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, even stated that Dimon “is the literal JPMorgan of the modern world,” as well as the most feared and revered person in the world of finance.
Since he came to the position of chief executive officer, Dimon created a strong bench of talent behind him, although many have left the company over the years to take senior roles elsewhere. Smith and Pinto themselves worked with Dimon on leading the firm over the past two years.
However, this was not the first time that Dimon has had health problems. He underwent treatment for throat cancer in 2014. His heart problem also comes at a delicate time, due to the coronavirus outbreak, which has already caused a sharp stock price decline and economic concerns.
