Instagram/LauraDimon JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and wife Judith Kent
Judith Kent is married to Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase.
Dimon previously served on the board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Dimon’s name has also been floated as a potential candidate for Treasury Secretary if Joe Biden wins the Democratic nomination and then the general election, according to Axios.
Dimon and Kent tied the knot in 1983 and have three grown daughters.
Here’s what you need to know about Judith Kent.
1. Judith Kent & Jamie Dimon Met at Harvard Business School & She Paid On Their First Date
Judith Ellen Kent was originally from Bethesda, Maryland, according to the engagement announcement published in the New York Times in January 1983. Her father, Robert Kent, was the president of an insurance and real estate company in Rockville.
Kent graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans before returning to the Washington, D.C. area. She earned a master’s degree in organizational psychology from Catholic University.
But it was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Kent met her future husband. She and Jamie Dimon were both students at Harvard Business School in the early 1980s.
Kent’s roommate met Dimon at a mutual friend’s wedding and suggested to Kent that she consider going out with him. On their first date, Kent ended up footing the bill because Dimon did not have any money on him at the time, according to Money Inc.
2. Judith Kent Worked at American Express Along With Her Husband After They Graduated From Business School
Judith Kent and Jamie Dimon moved to New York City after graduating from Harvard and got married in May 1983 and. They both went to work at American Express.
Kent was a management trainee while Dimon served as an assistant to the chairman of the executive committee.
In 1985, Dimon teamed up with colleague Sandy Weill on a separate venture. Together, they eventually formed Citigroup. But by 1998, the relationship had soured and Dimon was forced out.
In the biography “Last Man Standing,” author Duff McDonald wrote that Kent was far more upset about her husband’s firing than Dimon was at the time. She was quoted in the book, “Even though Jamie was at peace with himself, I was a raging maniac because of the way he’d been treated.”
3. Jamie Dimon Gave Judith Kent a Stock Certificate Valued at One-Third Of His Total Net Worth As a 15th Wedding Anniversary Present
Jamie Dimon has been the CEO of JPMorgan Chase since 2006. As of March 2020, his net worth was estimated at $1.3 billion, according to Forbes.
Dimon was forced out of Citigroup in 1998 and joined Bank One in 2000. But he wasn’t struggling for money in the interim. According to Business Insider, Dimon netted $110 million by selling his Citigroup shares in 1998.
That same year, Dimon gave wife Judith Kent a financial present on their 15th wedding anniversary. He handed her a stock certificate valued at “a full third of his net worth” and told her, “You deserve this; it’s yours.”
Author Duff McDonald wrote of this exchange in “Last Man Standing” with favorable language: “Whereas many of her friends still needed to go through their spouses to buy or do something, Judy Dimon was now free to do as she pleased. Long used to treating his wife as an equal, Dimon had (nearly) made her his financial equal as well.”
4. Kent Makes Sure Dimon’s Shirts Match His Suits, a Chase Colleague Told Vanity Fair
Judith Kent is the spouse with the fashion sense, according to a 2012 feature in Vanity Fair.
A former colleague of Jamie Dimon’s, Heidi Miller, told the magazine Dimon relied on his wife to make sure he looked presentable before leaving the house. “He’s not an extravagant man. I swear, if his wife didn’t point out shirts that match his suits, I’m not sure what he would look like in the morning, half the time. I always think of him as somewhat rumpled. He is oblivious to the trappings of very fancy things.”
Dimon and Kent’s Park Avenue co-op somewhat reflected that sentiment. The couple bought the New York City home for slightly less than $5 million in 2004, according to online records. As the Observer wrote in 2016, “Definitely not chump change, but also not exactly what one might expect from a man whose estimated yearly salary is $20 million.”
The Dimons own a substantially larger property in Bedford, New York, located in Westchester County. They bought the 10-bedroom mansion for $17 million in 2007. Business Insider reports the house sits on 34 acres of private land.
5. Kent & Dimon’s Three Daughters Are All Based In Their Hometown of New York City
Judith Kent and Jamie Dimon are parents to three grown daughters. Julia was born in 1985, followed by Laura in 1987, and Kara in 1989. Julia and Kara both attended Duke University while Laura chose Barnard College for her undergraduate education.
All three of the Dimon daughters are based in New York City. The oldest, Julia Dimon, followed her parents’ footsteps into the finance world. She has an MBA from Harvard Business School and worked for the investment bank Allen & Company, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Laura Dimon earned a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, according to her professional website. She has worked for the New York Daily News and Inside Edition at CBS. Her work has also been published in The New York Times, The Economist, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and The Huffington Post.
Youngest daughter Kara Dimon has a master’s degree in public health and an MBA from Columbia, according to her LinkedIn page.
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