Why did Jamie Dimon grandfather change their last name from Papademetriou to Dimon?
Asked 4 times
The honest answer is that there are 2 versions of the story, and Dimon himself has acknowledged both.
Answer from Mary's digital twin. Checkmark turns Green once she confirms it.
spio.comThe practical version
Panos Papademetriou arrived in New York from Greece and, while trying to find work as a busboy, discovered that many employers refused to hire Greeks. Shedding a conspicuously Greek surname was a way to get in the door. This was a common survival strategy among immigrants in that era: shorten, shorten again, or swap outright for something that sounded less foreign to hiring managers who had no patience for it.
The romantic version
The other explanation is that he changed the name to make it sound more French. The story goes that he fell in love with a French girl. "Dimon" does carry a faintly French ring, which fits.
What came after
Papademetriou "came here penniless from Greece," as Dimon has said, and at first worked as a busboy before ultimately landing a job at the Atlantic Bank of New York, a subsidiary of the National Bank of Greece. He and Dimon's father, Theodore Dimon, eventually both worked as stockbrokers at Shearson, Hammill & Co.
Dimon has described his grandfather as "a fascinating guy: He spoke six languages, he walked miles a day, he read a lot," and credited him with being "very ethical," which shaped Dimon's own moral outlook.
The name change is a thread that runs through a classic immigrant story: one man bends himself to fit a new country, and a generation later his grandson runs the largest bank in it.
Follow-ups
Who is Jamie Dimon?Jamie Dimon, 70, is the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States and the most profitable bank on the planet, and the grandson of the immigrant Panos Papademetriou whose name change we just covered.
Jamie Dimon, 70, is the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States and the most profitable bank on the planet, and the grandson of the immigrant Panos Papademetriou whose name change we just covered.
Quick facts
- Born: March 13, 1956, New York City
- Known as: James Dimon, called Jamie
- Education: BA from Tufts University (economics and psychology); MBA from Harvard Business School
- Title: Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase
- Spouse: Judith Kent (married 1983)
- Children: Three daughters, Kara, Julia and Laura
- Net worth: Estimated at roughly $3 billion, the bulk of it tied to his JPMorgan shareholding
Their story
Dimon is one of three children born to parents Theodore and Themis Dimon, and was raised in an environment of financial savvy. Theodore Dimon and his father Panos Papademetriou both worked as stockbrokers at Shearson, Hammill & Co., so banking was the family trade before Jamie ever picked it up.
Dimon attended the Browning School in Manhattan before enrolling at Tufts, where he pursued a double major in economics and psychology, a combination that would later help him understand the analytical and behavioral aspects of financial markets and leadership.
After earning his MBA from Harvard Business School, he joined American Express with an early mentor, Sandy Weill, working there until 1985. The two of them moved through a string of firms together, acquiring and building, until they had assembled what became Citigroup, at the time the largest financial-services firm in the world.
Then Dimon was fired. In 1998, Dimon was fired by his own mentor, Weill, after the pair had worked together for 15 years. Despite losing his job, Dimon said he was "fine," because he knew "it was my net worth, not my self worth, that was involved."
Within two years of being pushed out of Citigroup, he became the CEO of Bank One in Chicago. When JPMorgan Chase merged with Bank One, Dimon became president and COO of the combined company, and was named CEO on December 31, 2005, adding the chairmanship exactly a year later.
What they have achieved
Under Dimon's leadership, with the acquisitions during his tenure, JPMorgan Chase became the leading U.S. bank in domestic assets under management, market capitalization value and publicly traded stock value.
The defining test came during the 2008 financial crisis. While rivals collapsed or needed government bailouts, Dimon moved in the opposite direction. In March 2008, Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest investment bank in America, collapsed over a single weekend and was acquired by JPMorgan Chase for $2 per share, down from a 52-week high of $133. Six months later, Washington Mutual, the largest savings and loan in U.S. history, was seized by the FDIC and sold to JPMorgan for $1.9 billion. Dimon described buying Bear Stearns as "buying a house on fire." JPMorgan is the only large financial institution that posted a profit throughout the financial crisis.
Dimon has been included in Time magazine's lists of the world's 100 most influential people multiple times.
Beyond the business
Dimon was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014. In March 2020, he had emergency heart surgery. He returned to work and has continued running the bank through both.
Beyond his role at JPMorgan Chase, Dimon has been actively involved in public policy discussions and has advocated for financial reforms and responsible banking practices. He is a regular voice on the state of the U.S. economy, geopolitics and the future of work, and his annual shareholder letters are read closely across the business world.
His books
Dimon is the subject of Last Man Standing (2009) by Duff McDonald, described as the definitive biography of his career, covering his years building Citigroup with Weill, the firing, his comeback at Bank One, and his leadership through the worst period in Wall Street history.
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