Jes Staley

James Edward "Jes" Staley (born December 27, 1956) is an American banker, and the former group chief executive of Barclays. He stepped down as CEO on November 1, 2021, and was succeeded by C. S. Venkatakrishnan. Staley has nearly four decades of experience in banking and financial services. He spent 34 years at J.P. Morgan's investment bank, ultimately becoming CEO. In 2013, he moved to BlueMountain Capital, and in December 2015, became CEO of Barclays. In November 2021, Staley resigned amid a regulatory probe into whether he mischaracterized his relationship with the financier, human trafficker, and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Early life Staley was born on in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Paul R. Staley, was president and CEO of PQ Corporation, a chemicals company, who eventually settled the family outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His grandfather, Edward Staley, was the top executive of W.T. Grant at the time when the company filed for bankruptcy in 1976. His brother, Peter Staley, is an AIDS activist. His maternal grandfather was James Rhyne Killian, who served as the President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1948 until 1959. Staley graduated cum laude from Bowdoin College with a degree in economics. Career In 1979, after graduation, Staley joined Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. of New York. From 1980 to 1989, he worked in the bank's Latin America division, where he served as head of corporate finance for Brazil and general manager of the company's Brazilian brokerage firm. In the early 1990s, Staley became one of the founding members of J.P. Morgan's equities business and ran the Equity Capital Market and Syndicate groups. In 1999, he became head of the bank's Private Banking division which, under his leadership, improved profitability threefold during two years. In 2001, he was promoted to CEO of J.P. Morgan Asset Management and ran the division until 2009. During his tenure, J.P. Morgan Asset Management's client assets expanded from $605 billion to nearly $1.3 trillion. Staley has also been noted for his work on J.P. Morgan's strategic investment in Highbridge Capital Management by being named as one of the twenty hedge fund superstars at J.P. Morgan. His contribution to J.P. Morgan becoming an LGBT friendly company was also recognized. In 2009, Staley was promoted to chief executive of the Investment Bank.