When Jamie Dimon was wheeled into the operating room for an emergency heart surgery, he didn’t know whether he would make it out—what he did know was he had no big regrets in life.
The 69-year-old JPMorgan CEO has become the face of American banking over his decades-long career—and was even at one point, Wall Street’s savior. He is well known for navigating the bank nearly unscathed through the 2008 housing crash and for his deft actions in helping prop up the U.S. financial system.
But around five years ago, life handed him a raw deal.
After having already staved off throat cancer a decade prior, Dimon experienced an acute aortic dissection, or a tear in the inner layer of the body’s main artery, and had to rush to the hospital. The condition is rare—only about nine people per 100,000 experience it every year.
“It felt like someone stuck a knife in my heart,” he said in an interview with former Wall Street Journal journalist Monica Langley’s Office Hours: Business Edition.
Yet, as the long-time leader of a Wall Street icon, Dimon, faced with his possible demise, thought of his company first.
Dimon called his wife Judith Kent before he went into surgery and asked her to call JPMorgan’s general counsel and the lead director on the board to tell them “exactly” what was wrong with him so they could act appropriately. Survival odds for the procedure were around 50-50 and, taking no chances, JPMorgan appointed co-CEOs in case he were to die.
But Dimon, despite the odds, was by his own account seemingly calm and even thanked the nurses and doctors preparing to operate on him—he later bought them a new refrigerator and sanitizing machine as a thank you gift.
Life after surgery
When he emerged from the procedure after more than eight hours, Dimon began living more deliberately, although he said didn’t feel any big regrets or an urge to shift his life path.
“I love what I do, and that didn’t change,” Dimon said.
Despite the health scare, Dimon has not slowed by a longshot. He has a penchant for waking up before dawn and reading five newspapers before diving into work and as of last year was taking up squash. The same goes for his work life. In 2023, Dimon oversaw JPMorgan’s acquisition of First Republic Bank, which increased its deposits by $92 billion and gave it a significant stock boost.
Last year, Dimon walked back his plans to step away from the CEO role in the next five years. He now has no definite timeline for stepping down, he told Langley, but said he may stay on as chairman after he leaves the top job.
He’ll retire, he said, “When they are ready and it’s time for me to go—or some combination of the two.”
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