Tag: News

• China recently fined several businesses, including a KFC, for refusing to accept cash.
• These are some of the most established companies in China, showing just how quickly cash has fallen from favor there.
• It's a problem for a China hoping to attract foreign tourists who aren't part of the cashless system.

China's central bank fined seven businesses last week — including a KFC and branches of state-owned corporations — for rejecting cash payments, all as Beijing pushes to make spending more accessible for foreign tourists.

The People's Bank of China has meted out such punishments for years. But the employees caught this time worked for some of the country's largest and most established businesses, showing how cashless payments have grown so ubiquitous there.

The bank said it fined a KFC in Wuxi, Jiangsu, about $4,140 for refusing to take cash from a customer who ordered breakfast.

The employee responsible was fined about $410. According to the latest government data, the average wage in Wuxi is about $18,000 annually.

Other fined businesses include branches for state-run conglomerates such as an Inner Mongolia branch of China Post, an office in Gansu for New China Life Insurance, and a Jiangsu office for insurance firm PICC Property and Casualty.

China has mandated that local businesses leave the door open for cash payments as it tries to attract foreign investment and tourism after the pandemic.

People in the country already relied heavily on cashless and QR code payments before the pandemic, and the practice accelerated in popularity during the country's lockdown years. By the end of 2023, 86% of all payments in China were made through mobile phones, per state media.

That's become an issue for outsiders arriving in a newly reopened China, where they struggled to find vendors who would accept cash or even credit cards.

Hungry for foreign business, China has rushed to bridge the gap. Major payment platforms Alipay and WePay started allowing visitors to link their international bank cards to their Chinese accounts. Single-transaction limits for foreigners were also raised from $1,000 to $5,000.

This year, Beijing has been telling businesses such as three-star hotels and cab companies to start accepting international credit cards.

The wider transition has so far been slow — a taxi company in Shanghai, for example, announced in April that it would arrange for 50 taxis to accept foreign credit cards. Travel companies say there are over 50,000 licensed taxis in the city.

Tourism is a major source of revenue for China, with state-affiliated researchers predicting the sector will bring in about $800 billion in 2024.

But international arrivals have been lagging. Only about 35 million foreign visitors traveled to China in 2023, or around 30% of pre-pandemic levels.

China's cashless wave has also prompted concerns for the elderly, with a central bank survey finding that 75% of the country's seniors still use banknotes.

It's illegal in China to reject cash for purchases, and the central government's crackdown has intensified in the last several years. Regulators have been fining companies such as car dealerships that refuse cash, while state media promotes the paper bill as the "most basic instrument of payment."

Investor relations for Yum China, which operates KFC in China, did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider.

• FDIC chairman Martin Gruenberg said he will resign after report on poor workplace culture.
• An investigation found the FDIC's culture misogynistic and insular. Wrongdoers were not punished.
• President Joe Biden will nominate a new FDIC chair, who the Senate would then vote on.

The chairman of a key US bank regulator said he will resign after an independent investigation found widespread sexual harassment and other issues at the agency, and politicians from both sides criticized his leadership.

The independent report from earlier this month found the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has a "patriarchal," "misogynistic," and "insular" work culture. The report also probed FDIC chairman Martin Gruenberg's strong temper.

The 71-year-old Democratic chairman has spent nearly a decade in the role under multiple presidential administrations.

In an email to staff Monday cited by The Wall Street Journal, Gruenberg said he would resign once a successor has been found. Staying in office would prevent FDIC vice chairman Travis Hill, a Republican, from becoming the agency's acting chairman.

"In light of recent events, I am prepared to step down from my responsibilities once a successor is confirmed," according to the email viewed by the Journal. He added he would continue to fulfill his responsibilities in the meantime, "including the transformation of the FDIC's workplace culture."

The White House said that President Joe Biden would soon nominate a new FDIC chairman and that it expects the Senate to move quickly to confirm the nominee.

At a hearing earlier this month, House of Representative members questioned the FDIC's ability to perform its job as a bank regulator and stop bank failures if Gruenberg yells at employees who bring him bad news.

"I accept the findings of the reports and as chairman, I take full responsibility to anyone who has experienced sexual harassment, discrimination or other misconduct at the FDIC," Gruenberg said at the hearing.

Lawmakers from both parties asked for him to step down during the hearing.

The 234-page summary of the months-long investigation, led by external law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, highlighted long-standing and recent issues at the agency. The report said that the FDIC has dismissed myriad harassment complaints and that wrongdoers are moved around internally or promoted.

Investigators said they set up a hotline in mid-January and received more than 500 complaints — largely from current employees — about sexual harassment, discrimination, and other issues. The FDIC has about 6,000 employees.

The report characterized the FDIC's culture as "a 'good ol' boys' club where favoritism is common, wagons are circled around managers, and senior executives with well-known reputations for pursuing romantic relations with subordinates enjoy long careers without any apparent consequence."

• Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy on Sunday and Elon Musk is sad to see them go.
• "Too bad (sigh). I have some fond memories from a long time ago of eating at Red Lobster," he said.
• The seafood chain incurred significant losses after its Endless Shrimp deal backfired spectacularly.

Elon Musk wasn't happy when he found out that Red Lobster is filing for bankruptcy.

On Sunday, the seafood chain said in a statement that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Red Lobster said its restaurants will "remain open and operating as usual during the Chapter 11 process."

The development comes just a week after it said that it was closing over 50 branches in the US.

"Too bad (sigh). I have some fond memories from a long time ago of eating at Red Lobster," Musk said in an X post on Monday.

The mercurial billionaire was responding to an X post by podcaster and writer Trung Phan, which detailed Red Lobster's financial troubles.

Representatives for Musk and Red Lobster didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

The seafood chain is best known for its "Ultimate Endless Shrimp" promotion, which it has been running for more than 18 years. As part of the deal, customers could gorge themselves with as much shrimp as they wanted for just $20.

Last summer, the company decided to turn the limited-time offering into a permanent menu item. This meant that customers could get their shrimp fix every day.

The move ended up backfiring spectacularly, with Red Lobster reporting operating losses of $11 million and $12.5 million in the third and fourth quarters of 2023 respectively.

In November, Ludovic Garnier, the chief financial officer of Thai Union Group — a Red Lobster investor — told investors that the promotion was "one of the key reasons for the losses we generated in Q3 2023."

Red Lobster eventually raised the price of its promotion to $22 and then $25.

"If anything, the Endless Shrimp deals are probably as much a symbol of just either desperation or poor management or both," the editor in chief of Restaurant Business Magazine Jonathan Maze told BI's Emily Stewart.

Red Lobster's lurch toward bankruptcy comes at a tough time for the food and beverage industry, as companies struggle to draw in customers amid a rising cost of living.

In July, McDonald's CFO Ian Borden told investors that customers were ordering less and and switching to value-menu items to save money. This, he said, was because of a "challenging macro environment including rising interest rates and elevated costs."

"The consumer is price weary. Everybody is fighting for fewer consumers or consumers that are certainly visiting less frequently," Borden said in an earnings call last month.

Likewise for Starbucks, whose CEO Laxman Narasimhan who said last month that the coffee chain's performance "did not meet our expectations."

"Many customers are being more exacting about where and how they choose to spend their money, particularly with stimulus savings mostly spent," Narasimhan said.

• Trump Media & Technology Group lost $327.6 million in the first quarter, per an earnings report.
• The Monday filing revealed that TMTG earned a revenue of $770,500 in the first three months of the year.
• The company's current market cap is over $6 billion.

The parent company of Truth Social, former President Donald Trump's social media company, lost $327.6 million in the first quarter, per its Monday earnings report.

Trump Media & Technology Group went public via SPAC at the end of March after it merged with Nasdaq-listed Digital World Acquisition Corp. The bulk of its first-quarter losses — $311 million — were related to the merger, per the SEC filing.

Truth Social earned $770,500 in revenue from advertising, according to the earnings report, which is down from $1.1 million the same time last year.

TMTG, which is listed as DJT, was trading at about $48 after hours and has a market cap of over $6 billion.

On Monday, TMTG also said in a filing that it was subject to an inquiry from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a self-regulatory organization. It was related to trading before the announcement of the SPAC merger, TMTG said.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Tesla is offering discounts to appease European car rental and leasing firms, Reuters reported.
• The discounts follow Tesla's price cuts in Europe, which impacted fleet values for leasing firms.
• Tesla is also addressing complaints that had previously gone ignored, sources told the outlet.

Tesla is taking action to appease leasing and rental-car companies in Europe who say the value of their Tesla fleets has sharply declined, according to a new report from Reuters.

The outlet spoke to nine executives from top firms who said Tesla is now offering them discounts on new cars and is working to address long-standing and long-ignored complaints about the company's service and repairs.

The report comes after Tesla lowered the prices for some of its models in Europe last month, which in turn lowered the value of Tesla fleets owned by companies who lease or rent the electric vehicles.

"Tesla is now actively telling our members: We can give you discounts and compensate you," Richard Knubben, the director general of the leasing and rental car industry group Leaseurope, told Reuters. "But Tesla's residuals have dropped so fast, I'm not sure the discounts they're offering are enough."

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider.

The complaints by the European firms come as Tesla faces declining demand for EVs and an increase in competition, particularly in the Chinese market.

Tesla had a disappointing first quarter of 2024, reporting a 20% decline in car sales from the previous quarter and its first year-over-year decline in sales since 2020. Tesla also announced plans last month to cut more than 10% of its workforce and the layoffs have been ongoing since.

Reuters reported Tesla now has a "damage-control campaign" underway to woo European car leasing and rental firms, which accounted for 44% of Tesla sales in the UK and more than a dozen European Union countries in 2023, the outlet reported, citing Dataforce, a market research company.

In addition to the declining value of fleets, Reuters reported sources at the firms also complained that service and repairs on Tesla vehicles take too long and are too expensive compared to other car makers.

• A group of Tesla shareholders are urging others to reject Musk's proposed pay package.
• They also want shareholders to vote against the reelection of board members James Murdoch and Kimbal Musk.
• The shareholders cited concerns about Murdoch's and Kimbal Musk's personal ties to the Tesla CEO.

A group of Tesla shareholders are urging others to vote against the reelection of Kimbal Musk and James Murdoch to the Tesla Board and reject a plan to give Tesla CEO Elon Musk a hefty pay package.

The letter, made public Monday in an SEC filing, cites concerns that Kimbal, who is Musk's younger brother, and Murdoch, a friend of Musk who has taken vacations with his family, cannot effectively oversee the CEO because of their personal ties. Per the shareholders, they believe there is "ample evidence" that Tesla's entire board of directors is "overly beholden to CEO Musk."

The shareholder letter also cites The Wall Street Journal's reporting on Musk's drug use. Board members, including Kimbal, took drugs with Musk, the Journal reported in February, citing people who witnessed the incidents.

"If Board members are unable to resist pressure to use illegal substances for fear of alienating the person they are obligated to supervise, one can hardly imagine they will stand up to Musk when corporate issues requiring Board input and oversight are at stake," the shareholders wrote.

The shareholder group — which includes New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, SOC Investment Group, Amalgamated Bank, and several other investors — also disapproved of the plan to give Musk a $56 billion pay package. Musk's original pay package, approved by the board in 2018, was struck down by a Delaware judge in January. The judge ruled that Musk's close ties to the board resulted in an "unfair price," Business Insider reported.

Now, the Tesla board is looking for shareholders to approve Musk's pay, though this group opposes the idea. The group says Musk's controversial X posts have affected the company's bottom line. They also cite Musk's legal troubles, including a class action lawsuit from 6,000 Black employees who say they've faced racial discrimination working for Tesla, and reports of workplace safety issues at his factories.

"Even as Tesla's performance is floundering, the Board has yet to ensure that Tesla has a full-time CEO who is adequately focused on the long-term sustainable success of our Company," the investors wrote.

Shareholders are set to vote on Musk's pay package, along with the other proposals, on June 13.

Representatives for Murdoch, Kimbal Musk, and Elon Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Billionaire Dan Snyder funded a biopic about Donald Trump, Variety reports.
• "The Apprentice," a movie about Trump's early business years, premieres at Cannes on Monday.
• Now Snyder is getting lawyers involved because the movie isn't positive about Trump, Variety reports.

Billionaire and Donald Trump supporter Dan Snyder helped pay for a Donald Trump movie but is now furious after realizing the film isn't actually flattering to Trump, according to a new report from Variety.

"The Apprentice," directed by Ali Abbasi, makes its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival on Monday. Starring Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, the movie follows Trump's early years in business in the 1970s and 80s, according to IMDB.

Sources told Variety that Snyder — a major GOP donor and the former owner of the Washington Redskins — poured money into the new movie through a film company called Kinematics, thinking the biopic would be favorable to the former president.

But Snyder was livid at the film's depiction of Trump when saw a cut of the movie for the first time in February, sources told Variety.

Though little is known about the film and few have seen it ahead of its Cannes debut, Variety cited an insider who said the current cut features a scene in which Stan's Trump gets violent with his former wife, Ivana Trump.

Ivana Trump accused Trump of rape in a 1989 divorce filing but later walked back her accusation in 2015.

Following Snyder's viewing of the film, Kinematics lawyers launched an intense legal battle with the filmmakers to prevent its release, Variety reported.

However, Kinematics president Emanuel Nuñez told Variety that Snyder has not been involved in the creative differences over the film and that all "creative and business decisions" about the movie are "solely made by Kinematics."

Regardless, Kinematics doesn't have the power to halt the film's release because it doesn't own the copyright, Variety reported.

Representatives for Snyder, Kinematics, and Ali Abbasi didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Other investors in the movie include the governments of Canada, Ireland, and Denmark, according to Variety.

Trump has not yet commented on the film.

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash. His sudden death leaves room for the IRGC to gain more power.

• The Mars family has a net worth of $117 billion and helms the candy empire Mars Inc.
• That makes them America's second-richest family, according to a 2024 Forbes ranking.
• They're known for keeping to themselves, but in recent years, they've taken more to the limelight.

The Mars family sits atop a delicious empire.

They're the heirs to the candy throne that is Mars Inc., maker of Snickers, Mars Bars, Milky Way, Twix, M&M's, and more.

The century-old company has helped the Mars family build a reported fortune of $117 billion, making them America's second-richest family dynasty, according to Forbes' 2024 ranking of America's wealthiest clans. 

Press-shy and limelight-avoidant, the Mars family remains a bit of a mystery. They've been known to keep the company "notoriously private," in the words of Business Insider's Cadie Thompson. And the company's headquarters have been called "anonymous" by former Guardian reporter Andrew Clark.

However, Mars Inc. has more recently started trying to shed its secretive history. During the last few years, the Mars family and company executives have started to foray more into the public eye.

Here's what we know about the Mars family and Mars Inc.

The Mars family's $117 billion fortune is rooted in its family-owned candy empire, Mars Inc.

Founder Frank Mars had polio at a young age and so was unable to walk to school; while home, he learned from his mother, Elva, how to hand-dip chocolates and, in 1911, he began selling candy from his kitchen in Tacoma, Washington, according to Mars' website.

In 1902, Mars married schoolteacher Ethel G. Kissack. During the Depression, they became "social luminaries," boasting a $20,000 Deusenberg town car and two getaway homes in Wisconsin and Tennessee, according to a 2008 article in Washingtonian.

They also opened their Tennessee getaway home, the Milky Way Farms Racing Stables, to the public for fundraisers and public events. Ethel's horse won the Kentucky Derby in 1940, securing her "station in mint-julep society," Washingtonian reported.

Mars' son, Forrest Sr., joined the company in 1929.

They made the first chocolate nougat, setting the foundation for Milky Way Bars and Snickers. Forrest Sr. fell out with his father; in 1932, he was given the recipe for the Milky Way to start his own business, and he moved to England to do so.

Since then, the company has become known for the eponymous Mars Bar (at least in the UK) as well as 3 Musketeers, Twix, and M&Ms. More than 400 million M&Ms are produced in the US every day.

In 2008, Mars Inc. branched out from chocolate to gum when it acquired the Wrigley Jr. Company for $23 billion.

Besides confectionary brands, the company also owns food brands like Seeds of Change and Ben's Original, formerly Uncle Ben's.

In 2023, a bombshell CBS News article reported that Mars was using cocoa beans harvested by children as young as 5 in Ghana in order to make its chocolate products. 

A Mars company spokesperson told CBS in a statement at the time, "We condemn the use of child labor. Despite our requests, CBS did not provide specific details of their investigation to Mars ahead of time in order for us to investigate claims of misconduct at the time of this report. We treat any claim of misconduct in our supply chain very seriously and we will thoroughly investigate once we have the necessary information and take appropriate action."

Though the Mars name is most associated with candy, pet food is also a large part of the family business.

Mars' prominent position in pet food began with the 1935 acquisition of a British dog food firm, Chappel Bros. The company bought Iams and two other pet food brands in 2014 from Procter & Gamble for close to $2.9 billion.

Today, Mars is a dominant force in both pet food and veterinary medicine, as the owner of major food brands Pedigree, Whiskas, and Royal Canin, and some of the biggest private American chains of veterinary hospitals, Banfield and VCA.

Unlike his parents, Forrest Sr. was relatively frugal. He raised his children the same way — while they attended exclusive boarding schools, they did chores at home to earn an allowance.

However, he did buy a 740-acre farm in Virginia in the 1940s, though he and his wife, Audrey, lived apart for a lot of their marriage (she kept a penthouse apartment at The Watergate), according to Washingtonian.

Forrest Sr. has been described as having an "extreme temper," but was separately praised as "one of this century's most brilliant and successful entrepreneurs" by Fortune magazine in 1984.

"He was an iconic leader — dedicated and highly respected," a Mars spokesperson previously told Business Insider.

 

When Forrest Sr. died in 1999, his children — Jacqueline, John, and Forrest Mars Jr. — inherited a stake in the company.

Currently, 84-year-old Jacqueline and 88-year-old John co-own — but don't actively manage — Mars Inc. They have the biggest share of the family fortune. Each has an estimated net worth of $46.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

Forbes' 2024 list of the richest person in every state identified Jacqueline as the richest person in Virginia and John as the richest person in Wyoming.

Jacqueline is the only sibling with a lifestyle "close to reflecting her billionaire status," Washingtonian reported.

Like her family, Jacqueline maintains her privacy.

But, even so, Washingtonian reported in 2008 that she reportedly listed her estate in New Jersey for $2 million and maintains her mother's Watergate penthouse. She also reportedly has a place called Stonehall Farm in Virginia, where she breeds horses. She initially had broodmares in Ireland before moving the operation to the farm in 2005.

In 2013, Jacqueline was involved in a car crash in Loudon County. She was driving her Porsche SUV "when her vehicle crossed the center line and hit an eastbound minivan," according to authorities, reported the Washington Post.

"According to authorities, Mars told a witness who went to the scene of the accident that she had fallen asleep while driving," wrote Caitlin Gibson of The Washington Post. "Tests revealed no trace of drugs, alcohol, or medications that could have caused a blackout … Witnesses said that Mars was not speeding or driving erratically before the accident."

The driver of the other car lost her unborn son, a passenger died, and other passengers were injured. The victims urged the court not to seek jail time for Jacqueline, who pleaded guilty. She was ordered to pay a $2,500 fine.

"I can't go back in time. I can't change what happened," Mars, who planned to help the family, said in a statement. "I will always live with the grief and loss caused by this tragedy."

Jacqueline and her ex-husband David Badger have three children. Their son, Stephen Badger, previously was chairman of Mars Inc.

Stephen Badger served twice as chairman of the Mars Inc board of directors, with his most recent rotation from 2017 to 2020.

He told Business Insider in 2018 that in recent years, the company started to open up about its business to appeal to consumers and talent.

"For most of our history, in fact … for 99% of our history, we've chosen not to be in the public eye and we've really wanted our brands to engage consumers. And yet times have changed," Badger said. "Consumers do want to know more about not only the brands that they're buying, but the company that is behind them."

Today, he's a partner at The March Group.

Not much is known about Jacqueline's brother John, but in March 2015, he was made an honorary knight by Queen Elizabeth II.

Both John and Forrest Jr. inherited their father's tendency to avoid the spotlight. And their father's frugal ways stuck with them: Both brothers reportedly lived in relatively affordable condos.

"When I was growing up it felt very normal," Forrest Jr.'s daughter, Pamela Mars, told Campden FB, which covers family businesses and family offices, in a since-deleted interview. "I didn't feel different to anybody else. We did chores around the house, we went to school. We didn't live a different lifestyle to any of my friends."

Forrest Mars Jr. died in 2016 at the age of 84, leaving his stake to be split among his four daughters: Victoria Mars, Marijke Mars, Valerie Mars, and Pamela Mars-Wright.

Each of his daughters has an estimated net worth of $11.6 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.

Victoria is a former chair of the board of directors of Mars Inc. A spokesperson for Mars previously told BI that there are six rotating positions on the board.

Growing up, Pamela lived in Holland and France for several years before moving back to the US for her father's various Mars Inc. jobs. After graduating from Vassar College and a stint working in advertising, Pamela joined the family business as an operations supervisor. She moved up the ranks, and after a sabbatical, became chairman of the board, a position from which she later stepped down.

Valerie and Marijke have both worked at Mars and served on the company's board of directors.

For years, the family was known for being "notoriously private," keeping their personal lives and Mars Inc. out of the public eye.

The company's secrecy dates back to when Forrest Sr. patented the method for Ben's Original rice and American military chiefs tried to overturn the patent to supply troops, but Forrest refused, and the war came to an end before he could be forced to share his patents, per Washingtonian.

Forrest Sr. avoided photographers and interviews alike, and the company and family more broadly "have turned secrecy into a way of life," the Washingtonian reported.

Morningstar food analyst Mitchell Howard called Mars a "very, very quiet company."

Nicknamed "the Kremlin," the Mars Inc. headquarters are based in the Virginia suburbs and have been described as "secretive" and "anonymous," according to a 2008 article in The Guardian.

The company has been criticized for not giving enough, especially as one of the largest private companies in the US. Mars Inc. says it makes anonymous contributions.

In 2012, they donated $5 million to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History for renovations and a new gallery bearing their name.

In 2012, Jacqueline Mars received the first-ever Foundation for the National Archives' "Heritage Award," for her support of the National Archives and other arts and cultural institutions in Washington, DC.

The US Equestrian Team Foundation, of which she is an honorary life trustee, also gives Jacqueline B. Mars National Competition and Training Grant awards each year. These grants "provide training and competition resources for U.S. athletes who have never competed on an Eventing Olympics or FEI World Championships Team and have earned, via results and potential, the opportunity to travel to another part of the country to compete," according to the foundation.

Jacqueline also played a role merging the Opera with John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and made a multi-year commitment to support the Washington Performing Arts' programs.

"The family has always believed that the biggest contribution toward the world we want tomorrow is through the good that Mars, Inc. can do every day, and the family reinvests the vast majority of any profit made back into the company," a company spokesperson previously told BI.

In 2017, the company made a $1 billion investment in a sustainability program that will contribute to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. It also donated $26 million in pandemic relief to communities most affected by the crisis.

The Mars Wrigley Foundation supports educational and health-related causes by "providing oral health education and care, improving lives in mint and cocoa-growing regions, and creating resilient and vibrant communities," according to its website.

While the Mars family has remained private over the years, it's helped them keep their anonymity, Joseph Astrachan, an expert in family enterprises, told The Guardian.

But one thing will always remain private: the company itself.

"The philosophy of the family and the philosophy of the business is that it's a family business," Pamela Mars previously told Campden FB. "More importantly, it's a privately held business and that's the way that we'd like to keep it."

 

• Jamie Dimon has been the CEO of JPMorgan since 2006.
• Under his leadership, the company's stock value has tripled.
• Here's a look at the decades of work that made Dimon one of the most iconic names in finance.

Jamie Dimon, the billionaire CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has led the massive finance company for the better part of the last two decades, driving its assets and stock value to new heights.

"In the midst of the most serious and far-reaching financial crisis since the 1930s — much of it caused by plain old avarice and bad judgment — Dimon and JPMorgan Chase stood apart," Duff McDonald, an author and journalist, wrote of Dimon in his 2009 book "Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase," referring to the 2008 financial crisis.

"Much of the melodramatic coverage of Wall Street postcrisis has focused on its flaws — the hubris and the greed," McDonald wrote. "Jamie Dimon's story contains the opposites — the values of clarity, consistency, integrity, and courage. By sticking to them, Dimon has unquestionably become the dominant banking executive of his era."

Here's a look at Dimon's career, from his stint as a management consultant to becoming the billionaire financier propelling JPMorgan Chase's rise.

Representatives for Dimon declined to comment for this story when contacted by Business Insider.

Born into the world of finance

Dimon was born in New York City on March 13, 1956, one of three sons to Theodore and Themis (née Kalos) Dimon. His father was a stockbroker at Shearson who would eventually become an executive vice president at American Express.

After her sons went to college, Themis Dimon pursued a master's degree in psychology at Columbia University's Teachers College and volunteered at a preschool program.

The couple, who were married for 65 years, died within 22 hours of each other, according to their 2016 obituaries.

Dimon graduated from Tufts University, where he majored in psychology and economics. After a stint as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group, Dimon earned his MBA from Harvard in 1982.

A banking whiz kid from the start

Dimon's finance skills were clear from early on. At the behest of his mentor, the financier Sandy Weill, he turned down offers from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to accept a job at American Express after graduating from Harvard.

When Weill left American Express in 1985, Dimon followed. The pair ran Commercial Credit, a company they would build into the financial-services conglomerate Citigroup.

An unexpected ouster led to a key pivot

Weill asked Dimon to resign in 1998 after 15 years of working together. Weill would later tell The New York Times it was because Dimon wanted to take over as CEO but he wasn't ready to retire. Weill told the Times he regretted that the conflict led to Dimon's ouster.

On an episode of the "Coffee with The Greats" podcast, Dimon said he was "totally surprised" by his firing from Citigroup. He considered jobs at Amazon and Home Depot but ultimately became CEO of Bank One in 2000, which at the time was the nation's fifth-largest bank. Eventually, it would merge with JPMorgan.

JPMorgan's merger with Bank One saw Dimon's power surge

When JPMorgan merged with Bank One in 2004, Dimon became the new banking giant's president and chief operating officer. He would later become the bank's CEO in 2006.

Dimon quickly slashed expenses across the board, McDonald wrote in his biography. He ended the practice of the bank's corporate wing paying for clients to attend the US Open tennis tournament, canceled a $5 billion contract with IBM for computer-management services, and cut regional managers' compensation by as much as 50% over the next two years.

"He's going down like cod liver oil," Bloomberg reported one banker said of Dimon's approach.

McDonald wrote in his biography of Dimon that another unnamed banker said, "The news that Jamie is flying in is similar to being told that Ivan the Terrible is coming for tea."

His demanding leadership has proven valuable over the years

In 2008, Dimon played a key role in rescuing major banks from collapse amid the financial crisis. JPMorgan purchased Bear Stearns for $10 a share and also acquired Washington Mutual, which at the time was the largest US savings and loan institution, The New York Times reported.

"Jamie was demanding. He was relentless," Theresa Sweeney, his assistant from 1993 to 2000, is quoted as saying in McDonald's biography. "And he always wanted the one thing I hadn't done. I'd walk in there with my pad of paper and he'd give me 10 things to do. I'd go back to my desk. An hour later, he'd call me and I'd have already done nine of them. And he'd ask for the tenth. And he pounded and pounded and pounded until you got it done. By the third time he asked for something, you better have been at a funeral, because that was the only acceptable excuse for not having it finished."

Under his leadership, and due largely to its strategic partnerships and acquisitions, JPMorgan's value has skyrocketed, becoming the leading American bank in terms of domestic assets, market capitalization, and stock value.

College sweethearts became parents to 3 girls

Dimon married his college sweetheart, Judith Kent, after meeting at Harvard. They have three daughters together: Julia, Laura, and Kara Leigh.

Kent went to Tulane University for her undergraduate degree before receiving a master's in organization psychology from the Catholic University of America and an MBA from Harvard. She worked alongside Dimon at American Express as a management trainee shortly before they married, a 1983 wedding announcement published in The New York Times said.

Dimon has had a few health scares over the years, including a battle with throat cancer in 2014 and emergency heart surgery in 2020 after he was diagnosed with an aortic tear, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A longtime political donor, Dimon has considered a run for office himself

For many years, Dimon was a prominent donor to the Democratic Party. Though he labeled himself as "barely a Democrat" in 2012, his political ties to the Obama administration led to speculation he would be named secretary of the Treasury. The position was ultimately given to Timothy Geithner.

In 2016, he joined a business-advisory forum assembled by then-President Donald Trump, though it disbanded roughly a year later. Dimon supported several of Trump's jobs and tax policies but publicly disagreed with him on matters of immigration and international trade.

He briefly considered running for president in 2018. Though he ultimately decided against it, MarketWatch reported that he said, "I thought about thinking about it."

The billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman encouraged Dimon to consider a presidential bid in 2023, Forbes reported. The outlet also said Dimon expected to lead JPMorgan for at least 3 ½ more years.

Though he hasn't made any moves toward a campaign for public office, Dimon told Bloomberg last spring, "I love my country, and maybe one day I'll serve my country in one capacity or another."

Dimon's continued bank-saving has led to record JPMorgan profits

Dimon reprised his role as bank-saver in 2023, The New York Times reported, working as a partner with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the Fed chair Jerome Powell to convince leaders of 11 major banks to pitch in $30 billion to prevent First Republic Bank from collapsing in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failing in rapid succession.

In doing so, Dimon was "acting as a senior statesperson who is helping to shore up the financial industry in a time of crisis of confidence," Mike Mayo, a longtime banking analyst, said to the Times. "With that comes potentially higher prestige but also potential backlash."

But so far, the backlash hasn't come.

Per Fortune, JPMorgan's stock value has tripled since Dimon became CEO, and Bloomberg reported that in 2023, the bank recorded the largest-ever annual profit among US banks, pulling in nearly $50 billion.

Dimon may be retiring sooner than expected

During a Q&A with investors on Monday, Dimon suggested his retirement may be on the horizon.

While in the past Dimon joked he would retire in five years, when asked about his succession plan this time the 68-year-old said the timeline was "not five years anymore."

The longest-running CEO on Wall Street also said the plan to identify his replacement was "well on its way," and that he could potentially stay on as chair.

Note: This story was originally published April 2024 and has since been updated.

Correction: April 9, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the bank JPMorgan merged with in 2004. It's Bank One, not One Bank.