In response to external attacks on DEI at big-name financial firms, JPMorgan Chase CEO and Chair Jamie Dimon had a few choice words regarding the activists: “Bring them on.”
The comments were made Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” program, filmed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
This comes shortly after President Donald Trump’s two-day cascade of executive orders — including several that dismantle or seek to dismantle DEI initiatives — following his inauguration on Monday.
The forum correspondent asked Dimon about “a rebuke of ESG, a rebuke of DEI” spearheaded by conservative activists such as Robby Starbuck.
“You now have a couple of activists going after your company,” the interviewer said.
“Really? Not that I’m aware of,” Dimon responded. When the interviewer pushed him, Dimon said, “Well, bring them on.”
Standing by DEI, despite executive orders
Trump has signed at least five executive orders that pertain to DEI in both the public and private sector:
- Jan. 20: One rescinds former President Joe Biden’s 2023 order creating an equity team.
- Jan. 20: Another order shutters every federal agency’s diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility program “under whatever name they appear.”
- Jan. 20: Another denies the existence of gender identity, and bars trans people from single-sex spaces, including in the workplace.
- Jan. 20: Yet another executive order bans discussion of gender identity in the federal hiring process.
- Jan. 21: Trump also demands that federal agencies encourage private-sector firms to end DEI programs.
The topic of executive orders came up during the conversation with JPMorgan Chase’s CEO.
“First of all, I don’t like monikers and it makes it sound like it’s a binary thing of what you do,” Dimon said at one point. He outlined what JPMorgan Chase does and has “always done.”
While some policies may change, he acknowledged, the firm has long followed its own map.
For example, he said, “We’ve always done our own thing in climate. So we get criticized by people on the left and the right about climate. We’ve financed the biggest oil and gas companies — who’ve done a great job reducing their CO2, by the way. We’re the biggest financer of solar and wind.”
Adding to his illustrations of arguable contradictions, Dimon said, “We are going to continue to reach out to the Black community, Hispanic community, the LGBT community, the veterans community [...] And wherever I go, red states, blue states, green states, mayors, governors [...] they like what we do.”
Ultimately, he said, “We’re not trying to pander to any which side or any which thing.”
HR Dive reached out to JPMorgan Chase for additional comment. A spokesperson pointed to Dimon’s previous statements on diversity and inclusion efforts. The document, published in 2023, highlights the firm’s commitment to business resource groups and community outreach for Black people, women, veterans and people with disabilities.
“This approach is integral to what we do, in great scale, around the world — and it works,” Dimon said at the time. “We are quite clear that whether our efforts are inspired by the goodness of our hearts (as philanthropy or venture-type investing) or good business, we try to measure the actual outcomes.”
