They co-lead a Wall Street titan: here's how it happened

One was in the car with her family, the other had his phone off, when Jamie Dimon began dialing their numbers on a Saturday in January with a question: Could they run a Wall Street operation bigger than Goldman Sachs?

That’s how Jenn Piepszak and Troy Rohrbaugh learned they were about to co-lead JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s massive commercial and investment bank — one of the industry’s most significant leadership changes in years. Their task: Continue building a Wall Street juggernaut that already ranks near the top of every major business line.

In their first interview since taking the post, Piepszak and Rohrbaugh, both 54, described the whirlwind that ensued as they figured out how they wanted to run the business, installed a leadership team and prepared to present their plan to shareholders in May. They also explained how they landed on strategic efforts that include handling a greater share of corporate cash flows and offering more advice to innovators.

The division just posted a record $35.5 billion of revenue for the year’s first half.

The shakeup by Chief Executive Officer Dimon, 68, is giving his potential successors more experience running key parts of the bank. Piepszak and her former co-head atop JPMorgan’s retail arm, Marianne Lake, have long been seen as the most likely candidates. But the move in January made Rohrbaugh the leading dark horse.

It all began when Piepszak answered her phone with her son in the back seat. She had an inkling of who it might be. “Jamie’s the only person I know who shows up as ‘No Caller ID,’” she said.

Rohrbaugh, visiting his mother in a Baltimore hospital, turned on his device to discover a series of missed calls from a blocked number, as well as his then-boss. “She’s like, ‘Don’t you think you should call back?’” Rohrbaugh recalled. “I said, ‘Well, either the building’s on fire, I’m getting promoted, or I’m getting fired.”

Dimon asked about his mom, then told him about the promotion.

In less than a week, Piepszak and Rohrbaugh were running a division with more than 90,000 people around the world — roughly twice the headcount at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and generating around a third more revenue. Their operations, spread across over 60 countries, often produce the largest share of JPMorgan’s earnings.

This month, Piepszak and Rohrbaugh notched a market-share win, as JPMorgan’s M&A bankers reaped more fees than Goldman for the first time in over a decade. The haul followed months in which some competitors privately complained that JPMorgan was bidding more aggressively to win mandates.

HASTY START

Piepszak and Rohrbaugh’s first few months might have been less hectic if JPMorgan hadn’t simultaneously expanded their division ahead of an investor day already set for May.

Inside JPMorgan, whispers had long circulated that the commercial bank would merge with corporate and investment banking operations. But Dimon wanted to build out the commercial bank first.

Timing that reorganization with Piepszak and Rohrbaugh’s arrival meant they had about four months to see it through, hone their strategy, get a team in place and then stand on a stage to walk shareholders through their plans — bypassing any settling-in phase.

“Having to do investor day was actually super helpful,” Rohrbaugh said. Otherwise, “what took us three months would’ve taken us 12-plus.”

The presentation itself looked like a victory lap. Of 25 products, JPMorgan ranked itself first in 13 and second or third in 11. There’s only one where the firm ranks worse: trade finance, which Piepszak and Rohrbaugh’s predecessor atop the division, Daniel Pinto, said last year is “essentially by design.” Old opportunities to improve earnings by narrowing major competitive gaps — such as in equities trading — are no longer there.

“The low-hanging fruit is not there,” Rohrbaugh said. “There’s no one thing that is going to make the difference because that’s already been done.”

CITI'S 'JEWEL'

Looking ahead, he and Piepszak aim to win more market share by handling more corporate cash flows around the globe. That mundane service can be a foot in the door with clients, opening the way to lending, trading and investment banking. Pushing into that realm is a direct challenge to HSBC Holdings Plc and Citigroup Inc., which calls that line its “crown jewel” and key to its future. 

Piepszak and Rohrbaugh also see opportunities in the so-called innovation economy — the venture capital-startup ecosystem once dominated by Silicon Valley Bank. That lender failed last year, followed by crosstown rival First Republic, which JPMorgan scooped up to supercharge its ambitions in technology and health care.

On another front, JPMorgan is hiring traders and bankers in Japan, and more bankers in India, both of which Piepszak called “outsized opportunities.” In the US, the firm plans to expand in more than a dozen middle-market cities by the end of 2025.

Their to-do list continues: Deepening client relationships in the financial institutions space, encouraging dealmakers and equity underwriters to close “addressable gaps” in niche areas, forging ahead in private credit and deploying artificial intelligence.

That’s against the backdrop of a competitive landscape that increasingly reaches far beyond the usual bank rivals, such as Citigroup, Goldman, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp. While fintech startups once drew public attention with popular apps and platforms, they’ve struggled to build themselves out in ways that threaten the big full-service banks. 

But on Wall Street, nonbank trading houses such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities are proving increasingly formidable and have ambitious expansion plans. In dealmaking there are boutiques such as Evercore Inc. and Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Private credit shops are challenging the core banking business of making loans. Payments platforms are targeting larger clients, too.

“The nonbank space is deeper and getting stronger,” Piepszak said. “I was surprised – it’s everywhere and it’s category by category, and in almost every case they’re strengthening.”

LONGTIME ORBIT

Piepszak and Rohrbaugh’s careers have been crisscrossing for about a decade. It started when she was running business banking, and he was leading foreign-exchange trading, and their operations developed a partnership.

A few years later, Piepszak was named chief financial officer while Rohrbaugh continued his ascent through the trading ranks to become global head of markets. They met twice a week – Monday and Wednesday mornings.

“I suspect – and I’ve never been the CFO – that for most CFOs, you want to know what we’re doing in markets,” Rohrbaugh said. “It’s the one place where you can actually lose a lot of money in a given day, week or month.”

After Dimon called them that Saturday, they spent about an hour on the phone chatting. Their offices are now next to each other at the firm’s Manhattan headquarters. In the interview, one would make a point, then the other would underscore it minutes later.

They recently toured their operations across Europe, hitting six cities in five days. After jointly visiting Madrid, Frankfurt and Milan, Piepszak headed to Paris, while Rohrbaugh went to London, and then they reconvened in Dublin.

Piepszak likened it to Dimon’s annual bus trip to JPMorgan outposts across the US. Europe is dense enough that it works there, too.

PACKERS, RAVENS

“For the most part we’ll probably divide travel,” she said, adding that later this year she’ll visit Latin America and Rohrbaugh will go to Asia. “On the Continent we could go to so many cities so quickly, we thought, let’s do this.”

Unlike Dimon, who has three daughters, Piepszak and Rohrbaugh each have sons. Earlier this month, they went to a New York Mets game together, each with a kid in tow.

When it comes to other sports, however, their loyalties diverge. Piepszak is a Green Bay Packers fan, while Rohrbaugh roots for his hometown Baltimore Ravens. And while both like to ski, the lifelong trader is, not so surprisingly, more risk-on.

“To me, skiing is more fun if it’s actually dangerous,” Rohrbaugh said. He also likes taking backpacking trips to places where his phone doesn’t work.

“He goes off the grid,” Piepszak said. “I don’t go off the grid.”