By Beth Kowitt /
Bloomberg Opinion
There was a moment, not that long ago, when it seemed as if corporations in the US might be at the beginning of a golden age for female chief executive officers.You would not have known it by looking at the very top of big company’s corporate organization charts, which featured nearly as many men named John as it did the total number of women holding down the same job.However, right behind them, a slate of women were in contention to take their spots running some of the biggest companies in the US, including Walmart Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Walt Disney Co and Apple Inc.
The JPMorgan Chase & Co logo at one of the headquarters’ entrances is pictured in New York City, on April 1.
As of Thursday, when JPMorgan announced that Marianne Lake, its chief of consumer banking, would depart, not one of these female candidates is still a contender. One by one, each was passed over or opted out of the top job. Other than at JPMorgan, the male CEOs of all these Fortune 500 enterprises handed the CEO baton to other men.And unless there is a dark horse in the CEO race at JPMorgan that we do not know about, Jamie Dimon would, too, when he eventually steps down. As my colleague Paul Davies reported, Lake has been cut out of the CEO bake-off; she is retiring rather than take a lesser job when her current role is handed over to one of Dimon’s potential successors. Last year, JPMorgan lost its other top female CEO candidate when Jennifer Piepszak said she did not want to be considered to succeed Dimon at that time, instead preferring to operate “in support of top leadership.”
