How the Chief Financial Officer of JPMorgan has become the best hope to succeed Dimon

NEW YORK (Reuters) – As a single mother with a British accent who loves numbers, Marianne Lake has little resemblance to Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co's longtime general manager.JPM.N), known for his bravado, his quips and his occasional explosions.

Still, Lake emerged as a favorite to replace Dimon when he finally withdrew, Reuters interviews with more than a dozen current and former executives show.

During his nearly six years as JPMorgan's Chief Financial Officer, Lake, 49, has taken on more and more responsibilities, becoming the lining of Dimon. She helps develop strategies for each of the bank's business units and oversees issues ranging from annual stress testing to employee cafeterias.

Widely unknown outside of JPMorgan when he was appointed chief financial officer in 2012, Lake worked in the wholesale and retail business for 19 years. "She's been everywhere," said Dimon, 62, in an interview, describing Lake as an "extraordinarily talented leader."

"She has all the qualities of a great leader," he said. These include being demanding, extracting information from people and recognizing talents within the 15,000 people she oversees. Dimon said that she also challenges him when she thinks he's wrong.

Lake, who also spoke to Reuters, said she hoped to broaden her skills in her next job and explained her ambitions clearly to the board of directors chaired by Dimon. She declined to predict whether she will be the next CEO.

"I want to be in this business in 10 years and I will be more open to the next step," she said. "I told the board that I wanted to be there for the long term."

Dimon has been CEO for almost 13 years, the longest term among major US banks. He is a larger-than-life character who has led JPMorgan through the financial crisis and regularly gets up against regulators and politicians. The question of who might succeed him has captivated Wall Street for years. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2NbTiZo)

Lake's stance has increased as other CEO candidates have quit JPMorgan after being impatient or taking the wrong side of Dimon, leaders said. "I put my money on top of everyone," said a long-time JPMorgan officer, on condition of anonymity.

"She is very familiar with the bank, with its role in all our activities and functions," said Gordon Smith, co-chairman of the firm and general manager of JPMorgan's consumer bank.

Dimon, who announced his resignation in about five years, would not discuss Lake's chances. It's the choice of the board of directors, and other people could also run the business, he said. And, Dimon warned, "Things are changing … everyone is changing."

JPMorgan stated that it has a succession plan and strives to provide management experience in its various activities, without publicly disclosing the details.

Analysts often mention two people likely to succeed Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith, 60, and the other, Daniel Pinto, 55, who heads the investment bank. Mary Erdoes, 51, head of asset and wealth management, and Doug Petno, 53, head of the commercial bank, have also been cited over the years.

CRUCIAL COUNCIL

When former CFO Douglas Braunstein left office in 2012 as a result of the "London Whales" scandal in which a JPMorgan trader had lost more than $ 6 billion, Lake was one of the interviewed executives for the position of Chief Financial Officer. In the interview, Lake gave a colleague a tip that she said helped her to win the promotion: Tell Dimon how much you want the job and tell him how much you are going work hard for him.

"If you do not tell people that you really want a job, then you do not have a shot," said Lake.

Born in Maryland and raised by working class parents from the South of England, Lake joined JPMorgan's London office as CFO for credit at age 30, after working on PricewaterhouseCoopers' JPMorgan account. . She moved to the United States in 2004 as JPMorgan merged with Bank One, which Dimon headed before becoming CEO of the combined organization.

She worked on a costly, multi-year operation to combine JPMorgan's data and accounting systems with the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley accounting controls. She was a supervisor of the investment bank during the 2007-2009 financial crisis and managed finance for the retail bank, while the mortgage business was undergoing radical changes thereafter.

Dimon appointed her to the current position in November 2012 and her colleagues were stunned by her intensity in preparing her first quarterly earnings presentation in January.

"She still wants to understand why," said Sarah Youngwood, then head of investor relations. "It's still happening so far."

Lake is talking too fast for some people to follow. "It's because she thinks very fast, but she has slowed down," said Youngwood, who now has CFO's job at the consumer bank.

Lake said that she sometimes counted on reducing the pace.

The bank's analysts welcome all the information provided by Lake in her presentations and they like her to quickly answer investors' questions.

For example, after Goldman Sachs analyst Richard Ramsden published a report in January 2015 asking if JPMorgan was due to wind up due to new regulations, Lake argued that the bank would prosper because of its size.

"She's probably one of the most talented CFOs," said Ramsden. "She's really at the top of every moment at JPMorgan."

The speed of the lake, the demands for information and the visual memory of the numbers can intimidate new employees, the people who work with them. Dimon said Lake and he sometimes challenged themselves to remember the numbers up to one decimal. "We have a lot of fun with each other," he said.

Lake had her three children through a surrogate mother at age 42 after she decided that even without a partner, she wanted to become a parent. After being appointed CFO, she realized that her story could inspire other career women at the bank and she often says it. A junior colleague described Lake's parenting decision as "fearless".

"It's too easy to say it's not convenient right now to have a child," said Lake. "On big life-changing decisions like this, you just have to go."

In a blink of an eye to its growing role, JPMorgan has put Lake at the center of its four-hour investor conference this year. Generally, all business leaders presented their own presentations, but this time, Lake spoke for an hour and a half, explaining the strategies for each of the four segments of JPMorgan and giving insight into how the bank uses the technology to reduce its income costs.

Lake says it is ready to assume a different role at JPMorgan and the CEO's next challenge will be to ensure that JPMorgan remains the largest profitable bank in the country.

"When you're a successful company," she said, "you have to fight very hard to avoid complacency, arrogance and bureaucracy."