Smith Barney's Whiz Kid

On a Sunday night in early August, Daniel P. Tully, the chief executive of Merrill Lynch & Co., phoned three other Wall Street CEOs. Tully, who was also serving as chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, asked Smith Barney's James Dimon, Dean Witter's Philip J. Purcell, and Goldman Sachs' Jon S. Corzine to come to Washington the next morning. The task at hand: the highly contentious negotiations over the terms of a landmark $100 million settlement for charges of pervasive price-fixing on NASDAQ. For three days straight, the four commuted to Washington and met with top regulators and their staffs.

It was the first time Merrill Lynch's Tully had worked closely with Dimon, who at 40 is the youngest CEO of a major securities firm. And it was one of the first times for Dimon to step out of the very long shadow of his boss, Sanford I. Weill, the CEO of Travelers Group, Smith Barney's parent. Says Tully: "Jamie never acted as if, `well, let me check with Sandy before I speak."'