Last week, in its securities filing, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said a “substantial majority” of investors wanted him to stay on as non-executive chair when he steps down as chief executive.
If he does stick around, it will mark the first time JPMorgan will split the roles of chair and CEO since 2006, when Dimon added the role of chairing the board of directors to the responsibilities he assumed upon being made the bank’s top executive a year earlier, writes Financial Times.
U.S. companies have been outliers among their multinational peers for allowing so many top executives also to chair the boards to which they answer.
As recently as 2017, most S&P 500 companies combined the CEO and chair positions, giving the U.S. a reputation for all-powerful “imperial CEOs.” According to the Conference Board, that figure dropped to 43 percent in 2021, a record low, while the number of independent chairs hit 36 percent, a record high.
JPMorgan’s main rivals—Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., all have boards of directors chaired by the CEO.
In recent years, JPMorgan has fended off investor pressure to split the chair and CEO role. In 2021, 48 percent of JPMorgan investors supported a shareholder proposal calling for separate roles.
