JPMorgan’s Marianne Lake to Succeed Braunstein as CFO

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) named Marianne Lake to succeed Chief Financial Officer Doug Braunstein, extending an overhaul of senior leadership at the largest U.S. bank by assets.

Lake, 43, will assume the new role in the first quarter as Braunstein, 51, becomes a vice chairman, the company said yesterday in a statement. Lake most recently was CFO of the New York-based firm’s consumer and community banking business.

Braunstein is relinquishing oversight of the bank’s finances after Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, 56, shuffled other top managers in the wake of more than $6.2 billion of losses linked to a trader nicknamed the London Whale. Braunstein had reported to Dimon until July when Matt Zames, 42, the executive assigned to clean up the bad trades, became his boss as co-chief operating officer.

“There’s been a lot of change recently, somewhat driven by the Whale, but that’s life, and we tried to do the right thing there and we’re doing fine,” Dimon said in an interview. JPMorgan is “basically done” with the management overhaul that began in May after the bank disclosed initial losses on a credit-derivatives portfolio. “I hope we’re back to what I call a steady state,” he said.

Lake has been CFO of the consumer and community banking business since 2009. The unit, with 160,000 employees and 50 million customers, offers services including banking, loans, credit cards, mortgages and wealth management.

Accounting Background

Lake, who has a bachelor’s degree in physics, said it was “surreal” to see her name on television after yesterday’s announcement. She started out as an accountant for PricewaterhouseCoopers in London and Sydney when she was 21 years old and has worked in finance and accounting for more than two decades. She’s the first JPMorgan CFO with a background focused on those areas since Dina Dublon left in 2004.

“It’s not at the top of my mind to make sweeping changes right now,” Lake said in an interview. “It’s a well-run function that I have been a part of. I have huge amounts of respect for Doug, and the people who worked with him.”

The appointment comes two months after Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the fifth-biggest U.S. bank and one of JPMorgan’s main investment-banking rivals, named Harvey M. Schwartz to succeed David A. Viniar as CFO at the end of January. Schwartz will assume the role after a career spent primarily in sales and trading, a contrast to Lake’s credentials and Viniar’s experience overseeing treasury and the firm’s controllers.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dawn Kopecki in New York at dkopecki@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net

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JPMorgan Appoints Marianne Lake to Replace Braunstein as CFO

Peter Foley/Bloomberg

JPMorgan & Chase Co.'s headquarters in New York.

JPMorgan & Chase Co.'s headquarters in New York. Photographer: Peter Foley/Bloomberg