JPMorgan CEO Is Back Home After Surgery

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., is home and recovering after having emergency heart surgery last week, according to a report by Bloomberg.

“We want you to know that his doctors said he is doing very well in all aspects of his recovery,” co-presidents Daniel Pinto and Gordon Smith wrote in a staff memo on Thursday (March 12). “He is in good spirits and looking forward to re-engaging with our team soon.”

The two men have been handling the running of the company in Dimon’s absence. About a week ago, Dimon said he felt some pain in his chest, and he went to the hospital of his own accord.

Doctors diagnosed him with acute aortic dissection, which is a condition that involves a tear in one of the blood vessels connected to the heart. It’s a fairly serious condition that can lead to death.

Dimon will turn 64 tomorrow (Friday March 13), and he’s one of the most well known banking executives in the world. He’s often seen speaking on television and acts as a de facto spokesperson for Wall Street, as well as consumer lending.

In 2014, Dimon was diagnosed with throat cancer, but he continued to shepherd JPMorgan while he was getting treated with chemotherapy.

Dimon has also been vocal about the growing coronavirus crisis.

Commenting last month on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on markets, Dimon told CNBC, “we’ll just have to wait and see” what the fallout will be.

“It’s very hard to tell you, and I don’t want to guess,” he said, referencing the massive market sell-off and the Dow plummeting 1,000 points. Global stocks lost over $1.7 trillion of value in a single day on Feb. 24.

“Obviously, we hope [the virus] is contained. It’s a human casualty … you feel terrible for it,” Dimon told Wilfred Frost at the JPMorgan Chase 2020 Investor Day. “We have South Korea, Japan and Iran now with these rapidly increasing curves. How bad is it? How did they get there? They don’t know who patient number one was in Italy.”