10 facts about Jamie Dimon

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Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has come under intense fire since it was disclosed last week that his company had lost some $2 billion – an incident that he said was the result of a “terrible, egregious mistake.” Here’s POLITICO’s roundup of 10 little-known facts about Dimon:

1. Paternal grandfather Panos Papademetriou, who left Greece and arrived in New York in 1921, reportedly told two stories about why he changed his last name to Dimon: one was that when he was trying to find work as a busboy, he realized people didn’t want to hire Greeks; the other story was that he had fallen in love with a French girl.

2. Married Harvard classmate Judy Kent — she paid for their first date because he had no money.

3. Has a twin brother named Teddy, who once described his sibling as someone who was extremely confident and “always wanted the ball when the game was on the line.”

4. At the age of six, started his first business venture – selling greeting cards.

5. “Arrives [at the office] on Monday[s] with a penned list of questions for subordinates (he carries the list in his breast pocket, crossing off items as he grabs people in the hallways),” according to The New York Times.

6. When he was 9, told his father that he was going to make a fortune when he grew up, and as a young man, could be found reading J Paul Getty’s “ How to Be Rich.”

7. In his office, has a sign that reads “No Whiners.”

8. Was booed during a commencement ceremony at Syracuse University in 2010 when he first took the stage. There had initially been protests on campus when it was announced that he would be speaking and Dimon said during his speech: “It takes courage to be accountable.”

9. Gave his wife a stock certificate on their 15th wedding anniversary, officially handing over one-third of his net worth. “ You deserve this,” he reportedly said to her.

10. Colleagues have commented on his great ability to remember. “You go in his office, there is almost nothing on his desk,” longtime colleague Steve Black once told the New York Times. “He reads it and remembers.”