Good morning. CEO succession planning can be challenging as the board must identify a leader with the right skills and experience. So choosing a successor for Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank by assets, is a tall order.
Two executives once considered top contenders for the CEO job at JPMorgan, have exited the race to succeed Dimon. Daniel Pinto, president and chief operating officer (COO), will step down from his role on June 30, and will officially retire in 2026, the firm announced in January. And Jennifer Piepszak, who will take his place as COO, claims to have no interest in taking the top job. Piepszak, a more than 30-year veteran at the firm, served as co-chief executive officer of the commercial and investment bank since January 2024. She was also previously CFO.
At the UBS Financial Services Forum on Tuesday, JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum was asked about succession planning at the firm. “I think for a company like ours, with a CEO like Jamie, it’s particularly important to have succession be an essential aspect and an essential strategic priority for how the company is run,” Barnum said. And that’s a top priority of the board, he said.
Barnum noted that he’s not on the inside of those discussions. “But my impression from the outside is that the level of focus and fairness and discipline with which the board is thinking about questions of succession is as high as ever,” he said. “We have a very deep and strong bench, and the focus on succession is as clear and as strong as ever.”
Last year, Dimon, who ranks No. 5 on Fortune’s 100 Most Powerful People in Business list, commented that his departure from JPMorgan is getting closer, saying the timeline is “not five years anymore.” Dimon previously named Pinto his “hit by a bus” CEO, meaning the exec is equipped to step into the leadership role at any time if he was incapacitated for any reason, Fortune reported.
JPMorgan has benefited from Pinto’s clarity of thinking, grace under pressure, and the depth of his insight, Barnum said during the fireside chat. Pinto, who has been with the firm for more than 40 years, has deep experience in markets all around the world and is a “differentiating feature of our franchise,” he said.
Barnum, CFO since 2021, joined the firm in 1994. Pinto has been “a critical figure in the second half of my career,” Barnum said. “I’ve learned a lot from him. He’s been a big supporter of mine.”
JPMorgan is No. 12 in the Fortune 500, so its CEO succession race will surely be closely watched.
SherylEstrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
Robert (Bob) Gold was appointed CFO of Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI), a provider of SaaS shipping solutions and financial services, effective March 10. He will succeed Pitney Bowes veteran John Witek, who has served as the company’s interim CFO. Gold most recently served as EVP and CFO at EyeCare Partners. Before that, he was EVP and CFO of AM General; SVP and CFO of Atrenne Integrated Solutions; CFO of Culligan International; CFO of United Plastics Group; and CFO of Jolly Gardener.
Ben Reich was appointed CFO of Thrive, a technology outsourcing provider for cybersecurity. Reich most recently was CFO of Opti9 Tech, a hybrid cloud solutions provider. Before that, Reich served as VP of finance at ATSG, completing the integration of four acquisitions.
Big Deal
Deloitte has released its 2025 Audit Committee Practices Report, a joint effort between Deloitte’s Center for Board Effectiveness and the Center for Audit Quality.
The top three priorities of the audit committee over the next year are: cybersecurity, enterprise risk management, and finance and internal audit talent. Fifty percent of respondents ranked cybersecurity as the number-one area of focus.
According to Deloitte’s survey, 62% of audit committees have primary oversight of cybersecurity risk, while 23% responded that their full board has oversight. How frequently is cybersecurity on the audit committee agenda? For 71% of respondents, the answer is quarterly, with 17% reporting it is on their agenda semiannually.
Regarding enterprise risk management, respondents indicated the audit committee (52%) is responsible for oversight, followed by the full board (28%), and the risk committee (19%).
Meanwhile, oversight of finance and internal audit talent is the primary responsibility of the audit committee for 92% of respondents. “Talent is a high priority for audit committee members, perhaps in part given the fast-paced changes in technology, including generative AI,” according to the report.
The findings are based on a survey of 237 respondents primarily on boards of U.S. public companies with $2 billion or more in market cap. Directors on boards of financial services companies made up 27% of the respondents.
Going deeper
“Workday debuts AI agents, with CEO saying they’ll ‘peacefully coexist’ with humans rather than replace them” is a new article by Fortune’s Sharon Goldman. In an exclusive interview, Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach discussed that AI agents will be able to take on more than just one specific, step-by-step task like writing software code, fraud detection, or invoice processing. Instead, he foresees AI agents as learning and adding new skills over time.
Overheard
“No one is inherently inspiring or infuriating. It is our current behavior that determines where we fall on the spectrum. This means that all of us can become more inspiring by building and honing our visionary, exemplar, and mentor capacities.”
Adam Galinsky, a professor at Columbia Business School, writes in a new Fortune Well article, “3 leadership lessons that parents can use at home.” Galinsky is the author of the book INSPIRE: The Universal Path for Transforming Yourself and Others.
