JPMorgan Chase’s long-running CEO succession race took a sharp turn Thursday when consumer bank head Marianne Lake said she was retiring, according to The Wall Street Journal, leaving two men — Troy Rohrbaugh and Doug Petno — as the leading internal candidates to succeed Jamie Dimon.
In 2019, JPMorgan put Lake and Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Piepszak into roles that positioned them as potential successors to Dimon, who has led the bank since 2006. At the time, the bank signaled that a woman could realistically ascend to the top of the nation’s biggest bank, a prospect viewed as a potentially potent moment in U.S. business, the Journal reported.
Piepszak pulled herself out of the running last year. Lake’s retirement Thursday eliminated the last female contender. The bank named Rohrbaugh and Petno co-presidents, giving them control of JPMorgan’s two biggest businesses and placing them in pole position for the succession.
“Two of our four most important operating roles are held by women, and the scale of their awards signals how pivotal they are to JPMorganChase’s future,” a bank spokesman said, referring to $20 million retention awards announced for both Piepszak and Mary Erdoes, the head of asset and wealth management.
The shake-up is unfolding against a broader shift in corporate America, where many large companies have scaled back explicit efforts to advance women leaders, the Journal reported. Headhunters told the Journal that boards are no longer asking that CEO-candidate slates include women — a change from just a few years ago, before corporate diversity programs triggered political and legal backlash.
“There’s a fundamental shift in succession planning,” said Raheela Anwar, president and CEO of Group 360 Consulting. “I’m not willing to say it’s a sign of the times, but I’m close to saying it’s a sign of the times.”
Women now hold about 20% of C-suite positions at commercial banks globally, according to data from the think tank OMFIF. In the U.S., women lead several major banks, including Citigroup Chief Executive Jane Fraser, U.S. Bancorp CEO Gunjan Kedia, Santander U.S. head Christiana Riley, and Deutsche Bank U.S. chief Lisa McGeough.
Other blue-chip companies have recently seen prominent female executives exit CEO races. Walmart’s international chief, Kathryn McLay, left earlier this year after John Furner was named CEO. Disney executive Dana Walden was a serious contender before Josh D’Amaro won the job. But some women have broken through: Chemical maker Dow named its chief operating officer, Karen S. Carter, as its next CEO, effective July 1.
For years, Dimon’s longer-than-expected tenure drew out the succession race, with contenders fading. He has always said gender would not be a determinative factor — that talent would — though the bank actively promoted women’s advancement. Roughly half of Dimon’s operating committee are women, a rarity on Wall Street. JPMorgan has long touted its “Women on the Move” program, while also joining other large banks in removing or watering down diversity-related language from public websites and filings, the Journal has reported.
Lake’s departure came as it became clear she was no longer in the running for the top job, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. A stream of employees gathered outside her office Thursday to wish her well, according to people familiar. Lake expects to eventually take another corporate executive position and has already received overtures from companies on Wall Street and beyond, those people said.
“Hope I do a good job with the bank because that’s what gives boards the courage to appoint another woman to a big job,” Kedia said at the University of Minnesota earlier this year, reflecting on her own appointment to CEO of U.S. Bancorp.
Jane Edison Stevenson, global vice chair at Korn Ferry, said she worried the number of female CEO appointments could slip if companies de-emphasized pathways that put women in roles with profit-and-loss responsibility. “If women are present in the roles of top consideration, being a woman is irrelevant,” she said.