JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced that experienced banker and business leader Peter Barker will become its California Chairman September 28. Barker, who was raised in Arcadia, California, and attended Claremont McKenna College, worked as an investment banker for more than 30 years, and has served on a number of philanthropic and corporate boards.
“Peter has been a trusted banker and terrific businessman in California for more than 30 years and will help us continue to build the J.P. Morgan and Chase businesses in the state,” says Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase.
The firm’s Investment, Private and Corporate banks have served California customers for many years, as have the credit card and home lending businesses. Last year, JPMorgan Chase purchased Washington Mutual’s 700 branches and 1,900 ATMs in California, setting the stage for dramatic growth in consumer, small business and commercial banking. Today, the company has more than 16,000 employees in the state.
Barker will serve on JPMorgan Chase’s Executive Committee and will work closely with fellow California-based executives to serve clients, interface with California state officials and coordinate and leverage the bank’s businesses.
The firm recently lent the state of California $1.5 billion so it could redeem IOUs. On March 31, Chase rebranded 708 bank branches with its trademark blue octagon logo, and plans to add 20 new branches by the end of the year. It also continues to refurbish branches and add personal bankers, business bankers, loan officers and investment specialists. Earlier this year, Chase opened nine homeownership centers in California so that struggling homeowners could talk face to face with loan counselors.
Barker began his career with Goldman Sachs in London in 1971, then moved to New York and on to Los Angeles seven years later – and has been there ever since. In 1982, he became the partner heading up the firm’s investment banking activities on the West Coast, working directly with corporations across industries on debt and equity financings, acquisitions, divestitures, recapitalizations, spin-offs and initial public offerings. He served as an advisory director from 1998 through 2002, and has worked on a variety of philanthropic and corporate activities, as well as, private investments since then.
He serves on the corporate boards of Avery Dennison and Fluor Corporation as well as the boards of W.M. Keck Foundation, Claremont McKenna College, the Huntington Library and the Fletcher Jones Foundation, where he is president of the board. He earned an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.
D.C.