JPMorgan Expands C-Suite Tech Division, Appoints First Black CIO 

J.P. Morgan Chase is rounding out the C-suite in its new technology division and appointed James Reid as chief information officer — the bank’s first black CIO — in addition to naming Melissa Goldman as CIO for the renamed Finance, Risk, Data and Controls technology unit, Reuters reported on Friday (May 7), citing an internal memo.

The new division — Employee Experience and Corporate Technology — is focused on updating its systems with innovations that will be used by the bank’s 250,000 employees.

Reid formerly led J.P. Morgan’s corporate technology engineering and architecture team and was given the company title of being a distinguished engineer. That notoriety has been achieved by just a few technologists at J.P. Morgan, all of whom are steering the bank’s tech strategy. Reid is also a member of the Cloud Design Council and is a driving force for the company’s diversity and inclusion initiatives.

The biggest U.S. bank by assets also named chief data officer Melissa Goldman as chief information officer for the renamed Finance, Risk, Data and Controls technology unit, according to the memo, per Reuters. She will continue heading a team that is working on new technology for risk, compliance, finance, liquidity, controls and data functions.

J.P. Morgan’s Jamie Dimon said in his annual shareholder’s letter in April that he believes the U.S. economy will thrive, but financial institutions will continue facing competition from FinTechs and other non-traditional rivals in the financial services space. Banks are now looking at a landscape where they are “playing an increasingly smaller role.”

In an interview with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster, J.P. Morgan’s Takis Georgakopoulos, global head of wholesale payments, said in January that the bank learned many lessons in 2020 that will be carried throughout the current year. He said that what has changed is that clients now have an urgency to adapt to a digital environment, driven in part by necessity rather than convenience.