Who

The one-time protégé of former Citigroup chief Sandy Weill, Dimon is the chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Backstory

The son of a stock broker, Dimon was raised in New York and passed through Tufts and Harvard Business School before connecting with Sandy Weill, then the president of American Express, thanks to an introduction from his father. Dimon was 26 when he signed on as Weill's assistant; when his boss clashed with Amex's chief three years later and was forced out of the company, Dimon loyally followed him out the door. Over the next two decades, Dimon worked side by side with Weill as they took a third-rate financial services firm, Commercial Credit, and proceeded to construct a financial powerhouse, acquiring Primedia (which owned Smith Barney), Shearson, and Travelers Corp., later adopting the insurance company's name. With Weill the brash deal-maker and Dimon the youthful numbers-cruncher—a relationship many likened to father and son—the acquisitive pair carried out their biggest deal in 1998 when they merged Travelers with Citicorp in an $78 billion transaction.

Dimon's stay at Citigroup would be short-lived. Although he was widely regarded as Weill's heir apparent at the company, tensions between the duo had been mounting even before the mega-merger. When the temperamental Dimon clashed with his new colleagues at Citi and then refused to promote Weill's own daughter at the company, the relationship disintegrated, and Dimon was forced out. (He walked away with a $20 million severance check.) After fielding a handful of offers, eighteen months later Dimon accepted the top job at Chicago's Bank One, then the country's sixth-largest bank. He doubled the value of the company in less than two years and negotiated its sale to JP Morgan Chase for $58 billion in 2004. Dimon was named president and second in command, then when JP Morgan Chase's William Harrison retired two years later, Dimon stepped up to chief executive.

Of note

Much as he did at Bank One, Dimon spent his early days at JP Morgan Chase trimming costs, improving operational efficiencies and consolidating operations. His obsession with cost-cutting may have pleased shareholders, but it quickly ruffled feathers within the company. Dimon cut salaries and dialed back on company perks, shutting down the luxurious gym and removing the fresh flowers that once decorated the corporate offices. But it wasn't all doom and gloom: Dimon also invested in several high-growth areas, beefing up the bank's energy trading and hedge fund departments.

One thing he didn't do, though, was plunge headlong into high-risk investments like collateralized debt obligations and structured investment vehicles, the sorts of investments that have rained misery on his Wall Street counterparts since the subprime mortgage crises began to unfold in 2007. Although Dimon didn't avoid the pain entirely—JP Morgan announced a $5 billion write-down in April 2008 and there may be more to come—his relative cautiousness in the run-up to the market downturn has spared him the fate of Chuck Prince and Stan O'Neal, both of whom were ushered out of the door in the wake of much larger losses. And it was thanks to JP Morgan's solid balance sheet that Dimon could afford to sweep in and scoop up an imploding Bear Stearns in early 2008, armed with a cushy $30 billion guarantee from the Fed.

The deal may very well go down as the greatest coup of Dimon's career: Although his low-ball offer of $2 a share was subsequently revised to $10, just the building that Bear Stearns is headquartered in is worth the price JP Morgan paid for the entire firm.

On the job

Dimon has installed a handful key confidants in senior positions at JP Morgan since assuming the top job. Citi alum Michael Cavanagh is now the company's CFO (he replaced Dina Dublon) and Heidi Miller is chief of treasury and securities services. Charlie Scharf, whose relationship with Dimon dates back to Commercial Credit, now oversees the retail division. Longtime pal Steve Black, who was once Salomon Smith Barney's global head of equities, is now the co-head of investment banking.

Keeping score

Dimon collected $28.86 million in compensation in 2007, up from $27.49 million a year earlier. Dimon's own stake in JP Morgan is worth more than $200 million.

In person

Dimon has never been known for his subtlety. Known to harangue employees for overspending and openly disparage senior execs in big meetings, he's a notoriously tough manager. Money magazine once reported that he was furious when he found out just how many newspaper subscriptions were paid for by the company. "You're a businessman. Pay for your own Wall Street Journal," he reportedly told an executive. Dimon's tightfistedness apparently extends to his personal life, too. According to friends, he continued to wear ragged Citigroup-emblazoned t-shirts long after the bank had fired him.

Board game

A reluctant attendee at black tie events—he's grumbled to those seated at his tables about the waste of time and money—Dimon sits on the board of NYU's School of Medicine, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, and Harvard Business School.

Personal

Jamie is married to Judith Kent Dimon, whom he met at business school. (His less-than-smooth pickup line: "I'm going home, and I want you to go with me.") They have three daughters and reside at 1185 Park Avenue; Dimon reportedly installed extensive soundproofing for the apartment so the neighbors aren't bothered by his habit of blasting Frank Sinatra tunes on his library's sound system. They still own the house in Chicago they lived in when Dimon was CEO of Bank One. They paid $4.68 million for the 26-room manse in 2000.

No joke

When Dimon's wife called him to complain about a flickering screen on a Bank One ATM at a Walgreens drugstore in Chicago, Dimon picked up the phone and called the repair unit himself. When he was told that the service vendor already knew about the problem but had yet to fix it, he fired the company on the spot.