Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer at JPMorgan Chase, is back behind his desk in his home office on Thursday (April 2) following emergency heart surgery on March 5, Reuters reported, citing an internal company memo.
In a memo to employees, Dimon, 64, said he has been convalescing at home and “getting stronger every day, and I am happy to be back to work this week – albeit working remotely like so many of you.”
He will continue to work from home as the country remains on lockdown amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic sweeping across the globe. Co-Presidents Daniel Pinto and Gordon Smith headed the country’s largest bank while Dimon was recovering from the surgery, which was to repair a tear to his aorta.
Dimon has served as CEO for the world’s sixth-largest bank since 2005, and chairman of the board since 2006. He said his “heart goes out to the individuals and families most affected by COVID-19. As always, JPMorgan Chase will play its critical part in helping the world recover. Our extraordinary capabilities prepare us for difficult times like this – we will rise to the challenge.”
Dimon underwent treatment for throat cancer in 2014, but he continued to guide JPMorgan while undergoing chemotherapy. “Everyone knows they’re going to die, but at one point it’s right here and you realize it’s true and it’s true maybe sooner than you think,” he told CNN at the time. “And so it’s nice to end every day by saying, ‘That was a good day.'”
Following the market’s worst decline in two years on Monday (Feb. 24), Dimon said that “we’ll just have to wait and see” what the fallout is from the coronavirus, when speaking to CNBC anchor Wilfred Frost at the JPMorgan Chase 2020 Investor Day. “Downturns present great opportunities. … We earn $47 billion. We can burn a billion in order to do something better, rather than be disrupted,” he added.
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