JPMorgan shuffles execs, sets stage for Dimon’s successor

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive officer of JP Morgan Chase & Co., named longtime associate Heidi Miller to the new post of president of JPMorgan International as part of a management shuffle to groom an eventual successor.

Miller, 57, who had been executive vice president for Treasury and Securities Services, will be replaced by Chief Financial Officer Michael Cavanagh, 44. Doug Braunstein, 49, head of Investment Banking Americas, will succeed Cavanagh as CFO, the company said in a statement today.

Dimon, 54, told investors in March that he planned to rotate senior executives across business lines as part of a succession plan. Miller’s working relationship with Dimon spans about two decades, including stints at Travelers Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., Bank One Corp. and JPMorgan.

In her time running the bank’s treasury and securities operation, Miller expanded the group’s cross-border operations. In 2008, the unit acquired the institutional global custody portfolio of Nordea, the Sweedish financial services group, with $317 billion of assets. The treasury and custody services operation also opened offices in China and Dubai, among other locations.

Miller also knows something about building a business: She launched JPMorgan’s private equity administrative services group about seven years ago. And she’s been able to wring value out of JPMorgan’s 2008 acquisition of Bear Stearns, which dramatically boosted the bank’s multi-currency clearing capabilities.

“This is someone who has the capability of staring Jamie Dimon down, so that’s obviously served her well,” said Duff McDonald, author of “Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase.” “The fact that he’s chosen her to take on this new and expanded role should surprise nobody.”

Likewise, the move gives Cavanagh, who has never run a business division at JPMorgan, operational experience as a possible successor to Dimon, McDonald said. Cavanagh worked with Dimon at Primerica and Citigroup before joining Bank One, where Dimon had become CEO, in 2000. He was named CFO of JPMorgan after Dimon sold his lender to the bank in 2004.

Braunstein has been one of JP Morgan’s most prolific dealmakers for corporate clients. He is also Dimon’s go-to banker for his own acquisitions after working across the negotiating table from him during the Bank One sale. Braunstein helped JP Morgan seal a deal to buy Bear Stearns Cos. during a weekend of frenzied negotiating in 2008.

Miller will focus on expanding in emerging markets like China, Brazil, India and Russia, regions where JP Morgan will battle Citigroup Inc. for business, said Anthony Polini, a banking analyst at Raymond James & Associates Inc. More than half of Citigroup’s revenue comes from overseas, compared with about a quarter at JPMorgan, Polini said.

“This is a key play to get a piece of the pie that Citi has a bigger slice of right now,” Polini said. “The projected growth rate for those economies are two or three times greater than the projected growth rates of the U.S.”

Related Topics: JPMorgan Chase & Co.