Expect DEI to be a non-factor in the horse race for Jamie Dimons JPMorgan successor

Last week, JPMorgan Chase startled Wall Street with an abrupt disclosure that two of its senior bankers — Troy Rohrbaugh and Doug Petno — had been named co-presidents, setting up what looks like a definitive horse race to replace 70-year-old Jamie Dimon.The announcement is indicative of interesting developments inside the House of Dimon even if there’s nothing definitive about this ­bake-off.First, despite Dimon’s embrace of constructs like DEI over the years, the place is at bottom a meritocracy.The spinout of JPM is that Rohrbaugh and Petno were chosen after a long and deliberate board decision.That left no room for Marianne Lake, the perceived front-runner for Dimon’s job and one of the highest ranking women on Wall Street.She had been running a unit — consumer and community banking — nearly as big and complex as the other guys’.

Rohrbaugh took her slot.Thursday, 56-year-old Lake “retired,” declining to supply a comment for the press release that announced the big reshuffle.Based on my reporting, it hasn’t gone unnoticed inside the top echelons of JPM that two white dudes were chosen to succeed Dimon over a glass-ceiling-busting woman.

Dimon was once fixated on constructs like Diversity Equity and Inclusion, so much so that his bank kept touting its benefits well after the Trump administration and the Supreme Court began reminding big companies that doling out jobs based on race or gender is unconstitutional.But the year is 2026 and times are a-changing.Lake wasn’t happy with last week’s reshuffle, I am told, and I can understand why: She is a good executive, well-liked and smart.

The DEI-obsessed business media anointed her as Dimon’s successor, but it was her performance that earned her a place at the top of JPM — though maybe not at the very top.Dimon and his board are getting the message that the country has moved well past the time when race and gender should matter more than your record of achievement.Still, the future of J...