In what amounts to the slowest-moving succession soap opera on Wall Street, another potential replacement for Jamie Dimon dropped out of the race on Thursday to take over the nation’s largest bank.
Marianne Lake, one of two women seen as a contender to replace Mr. Dimon atop JPMorgan Chase, said she would depart the bank after 25 years. In her place, JPMorgan promoted a pair of men, Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh, to be co-presidents, putting them in pole position to one day succeed Mr. Dimon — for now, at least.
Mr. Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan since 2006, said in a statement that the reshuffle was “an important step in our board’s thoughtful process around succession planning and development of our top leaders.”
Left unsaid was that Ms. Lake’s departure was the latest in a regular cadence of high-level executive departures as Mr. Dimon, 70, enters his third decade as leader of JPMorgan.
Usually tightly scripted, Mr. Dimon has avoided making direct promises about when he will step aside. In February, when asked at a shareholder meeting about his future plans, Mr. Dimon said he was “told to say this very specifically, I forgot: I’m here for a few more years as C.E.O., and maybe a few after as executive chairman.”
He later quipped on Fox Business that the matter was “up to God and the board.”
Mr. Rohrbaugh will take Ms. Lake’s former perch as head of consumer and community banking, a job that gives him a chance to make his mark on the bank’s 5,000 branches. Mr. Petno, an investment banker, will lead the firm’s high-finance efforts, though Mr. Dimon is always closely involved in the bank’s biggest deals. Both received $30 million “retention and continuity” bonuses on Thursday.
Also in the mix, though mentioned only in passing in Thursday’s announcement, is Mary C. Erdoes, head of JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management arm, and a frequent spokeswoman for the bank. Her role remains unchanged, and her bonus was $20 million.
