James B. Lee, Jr.

James B. Lee, Jr. is Vice Chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Co-Chairman of J.P. Morgan – its Investment Bank. Mr. Lee ran Chemical’s and then Chase’s Investment Bank until 2001 and founded several of its major businesses. Mr. Lee has financed and advised on many of the most historic transactions in the United States over his 36 year career with JPMorgan Chase. During the past 3 years, he led the J.P. Morgan teams that executed the $23 billion General Motors IPO, the largest IPO in the history of the United States, and the $9 billion re-IPO of AIG – both US Government-owned companies. Mr. Lee also advised Facebook on its $16 billion IPO, GE on its $30 billion sale of NBC to Comcast, United Airlines in its merger with Continental Airlines, and News Corporation on its purchase of Dow Jones. He is a member of JPMorgan Chase’s Executive Committee. Mr. Lee joined Chemical Bank in 1975 and held various assignments in specialist lending areas until 1980, when he founded and ran Chemical’s merchant bank in Australia. Mr. Lee is widely credited as the architect of the modern day syndicated loan market. In 1982, he founded the bank’s loan syndications unit in New York, which was the beginning of Chemical’s and then Chase Manhattan’s investment banking business. Following Chemical’s merger with Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, Mr. Lee founded the Bank’s first public securities business since Glass-Steagall, which was their high yield bond business. He simultaneously formed the bank’s first organized coverage of private equity firms as a stand alone industry group and subsequently started the bank’s first M&A practice in 1994. By organizing high yield with loan syndications and private equity coverage, and the newly formed M&A group, this led to a variety of market innovations which Chase pioneered. Mr. Lee himself has received many industry and national awards. Mr. Lee is a Member of the Board of Trustees of Williams College, and on the Boards of Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Inner-City Scholarship Fund, and the New York Police & Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund. Mr. Lee received a B.A. from Williams College, where he double majored in Economics and Art History. Mr. Lee and his wife, Elizabeth, reside in Darien, Connecticut and have three children, Alexandra, James and Elizabeth.