I was saddened on Wednesday when I learned that my former colleague at JP Morgan Chase, Jimmy Lee, died of a heart attack at the age of 62.
The bank that is today JP Morgan Chase is the result of several large mergers that started when two large New York City banks, Chemical Bank and Manufactures Hanover came together in 1991. Both Jimmy and I worked at Chemical Bank. Jimmy started in 1975 and I joined in 1987.
To those not involved in finance the name Jimmy Lee might not be top of mind, but Jimmy emerged as one of the most important Wall Street bankers, giving great advise to everyone from General Motors to Facebook. I was always struck by his direct, frank approach; buy willing to listen.
The first project I worked with Jimmy on was a program to give bank loans to companies that were reorganizing under the US bankruptcy law. These loans were called Debtor In Possession loans or DIP. Jimmy had the idea of letting other banks participate in these loans, so that no one bank carried too much of the risk. However, as this was a relatively new concept it had to be explained to government officials, and as the principal government affairs officer of the bank, I teamed up with Jimmy to help him make the presentations. Jimmy succeeded and really changed the face of bank financing for years to come.
My other major project with Jimmy was an event the bank hosted with DreamWorks during the 2000 Democratic Convention. As Head of Government Relations for the bank I had hosted luncheons honoring Women in Congress at the Democratic Conventions in 1992 and 1996. In 2000 when the Democrats decided to have their convention in Los Angeles I thought it would be a great idea to have a co-sponsor of the lunch, and my candidate was DreamWorks. I knew that Jimmy was a close friend and advisor to the founders of DreamWorks Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. These three media giants could care less who Tom Block was, but because Jimmy Lee assured them I was a good guy DreamWorks agreed to participate. The result was that along with Jeffrey Katzenberg I co-hosted the lunch. It was an amazing event, but occurred only because Jimmy Lee had confidence in me.
If I needed to see Jimmy I never was asked, “why do you need to talk to Mr. Lee?” He often answered his own phone. It was this personal touch that allowed him to have tremendous support from those who worked for him, and importantly the total loyalty of those he advised.
While he became a true leader of the financial world he was never Mr. Lee, never Jim or James, he was always Jimmy, accessible and filled with street smarts. He will be missed.
Tom Block is a public policy consultant who had a 21-year career with JP Morgan Chase where he served as head of government relations in New York City and created a Washington research product. He also created the bank’s EU Government Relations program and developed a new position as U.S. government policy strategist focusing on how U.S. government policy impacts capital markets. He has an extensive government and banking background, has worked on political campaigns and as a speech writer. He is a family trustee of Bernheim Arboretum in Louisville and holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from American University. He and his wife make their home in Kentucky. Contact him at tomblockct@aol.com.