Driving technology at the world’s largest Bank: Lori Beer, CIO JPMorgan Chase & Co.

When someone says investment banking, one of the first names to comes to mind is JPMorgan Chase. Named after the legendary American banker John Pierpont Morgan, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a multinational investment bank and is one of the largest banking corporations in the world. Employing over a quarter of a million people around the globe to provide a vast array of various types of financial services for several industries, JPMorgan Chase has established its position as one of the world’s dominant entity in the financial industry.

Whether it is energy, transportation, infrastructure development or banking, finance or any one of the numerous industries, implementation and maintaining a technological infrastructure and carrying out digitization efforts for the entirety of the corporations are no small feat. The job of JPMorgan’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) can rightly be called one of the most important CIO positions in the world.

Lori Beer serves as the Global Chief Information Officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co and is also on the corporation’s operating committee. Her job entails overseeing JPMorgan’s technology systems and infrastructure worldwide. Responsible for an enormous budget of over $11 billion and managing over 50,000 employees on the technical side, Beer’s job is instrumental for the consolidation and streamlining of JPMorgan’s retail, wholesale and asset and wealth management businesses. She also serves as the co-sponsor of the firm's Access Ability Business Resource Group.

Lori joined the company in 2014 and previously served as the CIO for the Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB). Before that Lori held the position of the Executive Vice President of Specialty Businesses and Information Technology for WellPoint, Inc., responsible for a $10 billion business unit which included WellPoint's Specialty Products. Being a highly accomplished leader in business and technology, it should not come as a surprise that Lori has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors. Lori Beer has been named a Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leader and National Association for Female Executives Women of Excellence Health Care Champion. She serves as a member of the University of Cincinnati's Lindner College of Business Advisory Council and has endowed a scholarship at the University to support the growing number of women in STEM careers.

Additionally, Beer has been featured in many publications including Fortune, Computerworld, eFinancialCareers and MIT Sloan Management Review.

The history of the company stretches back to the Gilded Age, an era of rapid economic growth in the United States. This period saw enormous industrial expansion in the country which attracted large numbers of immigrants from all across Europe and some even from Asia. Banking corporations during this time were central to the economic expansion of the country since they provided the financing which fueled the boom. John Pierpont Morgan was one of the central figures of this period and dominated finance and held enormous sway over Wall Street. He led transformative efforts to optimize and modernize business and industry in America and became one of the richest individuals in the world and left a lasting legacy on banking. Writers have called him America’s greatest banker.

JPMorgan Chase was built on the foundation of more than 1,200 preceding organizations that have been amalgamated over the years to form the company as it is known today. Beginning in 1799 in New York City, some of the firms that came together to become JPMorgan included J.P. Morgan & Co., The Chase Manhattan Bank, Bank One, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co., Chemical Bank, The First National Bank of Chicago, National Bank of Detroit, The Bear Stearns Companies Inc., Robert Fleming Holdings, and the Cazenove Group, and so on.

A set of core principles is what drives a large organization like JPMorgan. The guiding values are what allows the company to remain relevant in a constantly evolving market fueled by dynamic customer needs. It is strict and unwavering adherence to a certain set of ideas that have kept the company going through thick and thin and survive world wars, various conflicts as well as recessions. No matter what the circumstances are JPMorgan will always promise to be truthful and give honest assessments of its businesses and prospects; act with integrity and honor, and do the right thing—not necessarily the easy or expedient thing.  

The company firmly believes in corporate social responsibility. JPMorgan Chase believes more people should have access to opportunity and the chance to move up the economic ladder, particularly in the world’s cities, where the benefits of revitalization are not reaching everyone. To achieve this mission the company has reimagined its approach to corporate responsibility: To combine a data-driven, strategic focus with what it believes are the essential inputs for creating lasting impact in various communities. This model is yielding real results, and hopefully, it can serve as a template for others seeking to address social and economic challenges. JPMorgan’s global initiatives are focused on the key drivers of inclusive growth, and the company is making big, long-term bets that directly leverage its worldwide presence, talent, and resources.

Neighbourhood Revitalization

Partnerships for Raising Opportunity in Neighborhoods (PRO Neighborhoods) is a $125 million, five-year initiative to provide communities with the capital and tools they need to support locally-driven solutions and address key drivers of inequality across the country. JPMorgan Chase recognizes that thriving neighborhoods are critical to the long-term economic success of individuals, communities, and cities.

At a time when economic growth is often directed toward reviving commercial corridors and downtowns, many neighborhoods, families and small business owners are being left behind. As several key barriers to economic mobility are rooted in neighborhood conditions, cities need tailoring, comprehensive strategies for economic growth that ensure opportunities to prosper are extended to distressed neighborhoods and the families that live there.

Job and Skill Expansion

At an age of automation and ever-increasing pace of technological change, JPMorgan Chase is preparing for the future of work. According to some estimates, by 2030, more than 30 percent of the U.S. labor market and 375 million workers globally will need to change jobs or upgrade their skills significantly to continue to advance within the workforce. Building on the original, five-year, $250-million commitment in 2013, JPMorgan’s expanded five-year, $350-million New Skills at Work initiative will provide substantial support to community college and other non-traditional career pathway programs.

Advancing Cities Challenge

JPMorgan has announced the creation of the Advancing Cities initiative. It is a new $500 million, five-year initiative to drive inclusive growth and create greater economic opportunity in cities across the world. AdvancingCities applies insights from JPMorgan Chase’s proven model for impact in Detroit, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., and combines the firm’s lending capital, philanthropic capital and expertise to make investments in cities.

Based on the firm’s previous experience, JPMorgan Chase expects its AdvancingCities investment to attract an additional $1 billion in outside capital, resulting in a total of $1.5 billion directed to efforts that will increase inclusive growth in cities. The firm will invest in cities where conditions exist to help those who have not benefited from economic growth. This includes demonstrated, strong collaboration across the public and private sectors on solutions that create an opportunity for people at risk of being left out of economic growth. It would be deployed as investments and encourage creative, forward-looking solutions that create more widely shared prosperity in two ways:

AdvancingCities Challenge: JPMorgan Chase will launch a challenge to source and seed innovative solutions that help drive inclusive growth in up to 30 communities. The AdvancingCities Challenge will make investments in select cities to support collaborative and sustainable solutions that address cross-cutting challenges and help more people benefit from a growing economy. Successful proposals will support existing local coalitions of elected, business and nonprofit leaders working together to address major social and economic challenges such as employment barriers, financial insecurity, and neighborhood disinvestment. Proposals must incorporate at least two areas of focus within JPMorgan Chase’s Model for Impact.

Targeted City Investments: JPMorgan Chase intends to make large-scale investments in cities where the conditions are right for success and broader, deeper investments are needed to drive inclusive growth around the world. This fall, the firm will take this model for impact abroad and announce a new large-scale investment in a global city where the benefits of economic growth are not reaching everyone.

“The strength of our company has allowed us to always be there for our clients and communities - in good times and in bad times - and this strength enables us to continually invest in building our businesses for the future.”

JAMIE DIMON, CHAIRMAN & CEO, JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.