Good morning! Ashley Moody is the pick to fill Marco Rubio’s Senate spot, Sephora is making over all of its North American stores, and JPMorgan’s succession bake-off is reshaped. Have a restful weekend!
– Bank on it. Earlier this week, JPMorgan Chase made a statement on behalf of Jennifer Piepszak. The longtime executive “does not want to be considered for the CEO position at this time,” bank spokesperson Joe Evangelisti said. Announcing a new role for Piepszak as COO, he said “her clear preference is for a senior operating role working closely with Jamie [Dimon] and in support of top leadership going forward.”
The announcement took Piepszak out of the running in the closely-watched JPMorgan succession race. For a few years, the former firm CFO had served as co-CEO of consumer and community banking alongside then-fellow co-CEO Marianne Lake before taking on new role a year ago. Both execs were viewed as prime contenders to take over from chief Jamie Dimon—a big deal in an industry where only one woman (Citi’s Jane Fraser) has ever run a major bank. For a stretch, they were the first-ever tie on Fortune’s annual Most Powerful Women list (although Piepszak pulled ahead last year, at No. 18 to Lake’s No. 19).
While Piepszak and Lake were both in the mix as long-term successor candidates, Daniel Pinto had been named Dimon’s “hit by a bus” successor, ready to step in in case of an emergency. The $240 billion-in-revenue firm yesterday announced Pinto’s plans to retire in 2026. The race to take over from Dimon—whose retirement is no longer “five years away,” he has said—has officially been reshaped.
“We have several exceptional people. You guys know most of them,” Dimon said on the firm’s earnings call this week. “It’ll be one of those people…Of course, at the last minute, people get sick, they change their mind, they have family circumstances.”
Lake is still considered a contender. “There’s been no reading that I’ve seen that she would not be interested in the role,” Argus Research analyst Stephen Biggar told me. But she’s not the only one. Commercial and investment bank co-CEO Troy Rohrbaugh and global banking cohead Doug Petno are the other prime candidates who were spotlighted by the bank’s announcement.
Lake has spent her 25-year career at JPMorgan gaining the experience needed for the job across all aspects of the business. Before becoming CEO of consumer and community banking, the 55-year-old Brit was CEO of consumer lending, the firm’s CFO, and held various roles in the firm’s finance organization.
Fraser’s appointment at Citi broke Wall Street’s glass ceiling, but the industry still has a ways to go. (And, some say, has recently regressed to some of its bro-ier past amid Trump’s election.) Fraser is “out of the honeymoon period,” Biggar says, and faces challenges as she overhauls Citi. In some ways better than being the first, a second female chief on Wall Street would send the message that it’s par for the course for women to lead these firms.
But all succession predictions are just that for now. Dimon expressed sympathy for his execs who have to be “in the spotlight all the time” as part of this speculation. As he said this week: “Even if you thought you knew today, you couldn’t be completely sure.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Back at Bumble. Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd will return to the company as CEO in mid-March, Bumble said in a statement today. Wolfe Herd stepped down as CEO and became Bumble’s executive chair in November 2023, 9 years after founding the dating app. Current CEO Lidiane Jones, formerly of Slack, has resigned for “personal reasons.” Bloomberg
- Direct from D.C. Ashley Moody, Florida’s attorney general, was selected by Gov. Ron DeSantis to fill Marco Rubio’s Senate seat following his confirmation as secretary of state. In other Washington news, President Biden recently said he would have won the election had he stayed in the race—a remark that reportedly disappointed Vice President Kamala Harris. Wall Street Journal
- On the rise. More women and younger adults are getting cancer—a major shift from when men were considered more likely to be diagnosed. Cases of cervical cancer, for example, increased in women aged 30 to 44. New York Times
- Getting a makeover. Sephora is redesigning all of its more than 700 North American stores to better meet the needs of beauty customers. Artemis Patrick, president and CEO of Sephora North America, is behind the largest capital project in Sephora’s history, which is expected to take five years. Retail Dive
- Back and forth. Justin Baldoni sued his It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for at least $400 million in damages, the latest in a series of legal actions taken by the two actors against each other. In the complaint, Baldoni claims that Lively’s allegations were false and made in an attempt by the couple to ruin him. Lively has accused Baldoni and his team members of inappropriate conduct on set and an online smear campaign. Variety
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Deborah Liu is stepping down as CEO of genealogy company Ancestry.
Fertility and women’s health company Progyny added Debra Morris to its board of directors. Morris is president of AccessHope.
Index Industry Association named Kirsten Wegner CEO. She previously served as the CEO of Modern Markets Initiative.
Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that provides entertainment and technology ratings for parents, named Ellen Pack co-CEO; she will also join the board of directors. Pack was previously the organization's president.
Faire, an online marketplace for small businesses, promoted Jennifer Burke to chief revenue officer. She was previously the company’s head of revenue.
Aescape, a robotic massage company, named Kim Miller CMO. Previously, she was global CMO at Native Instruments.
Litera, which provides legal technology solutions, appointed Cynthia Gumbert as CMO. She was previously CMO at SmartBear.
Cyber resilience platform Deepwatch named Sammie Walker CMO. Most recently, she was CMO at Zimperium.
WellTheory, an autoimmune care provider, named Marisa Hodges head of sales. She previously served as VP of enterprise partnerships at Rightway.
Bill, a financial operations platform serving small and midsize businesses, appointed Keri Gohman to its board of directors. She was previously CEO of Caret.
ON MY RADAR
I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down—I just didn’t expect them to be such losers Guardian
She’s building the technology that could reshape the entertainment world. You just can’t see it Inc.
Is there life after the nap dress? Puck
PARTING WORDS
“You can’t make the world care about you. You just can’t. But if you try your best, you can build a community and fight for things you want.”
— Actor Keke Palmer reflects on the four female characters in her upcoming film I Love Boosters
