JPMorgan hires Berkshire's Combs for investing, advisor role

JPMorganChase hired Berkshire Hathaway's Todd Combs for a broad role that includes advising Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon and his top lieutenants on strategic issues.

Combs, one of just two investment managers under Berkshire's Warren Buffett, will also oversee JPMorgan's commitment to plow $10 billion into companies that will bolster U.S. economic security through direct equity investments, according to a statement Monday. As part of the changes, the company created a new council to help with that work, which includes Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley.

A former hedge fund manager, 54-year-old Combs already has deep ties with the bank. He joined JPMorgan's board in 2016 after he'd impressed Dimon so much when the banker visited Omaha. He was also instrumental in the health care venture that JPMorgan, Amazon and Berkshire started in 2018, though that project was ultimately shut down three years later.

"JPMorgan, as usually is the case, has made a good decision," Buffett said about the Combs hire in a separate statement.

Combs' departure from Berkshire will leave the $1 trillion conglomerate short an investment manager just as Buffett prepares to hand the chief executive officer title to Greg Abel. Combs helped oversee parts of the company's $283 billion equity portfolio alongside Buffett and Ted Weschler in addition to being the chief executive officer of the insurer Geico.

Investing veteran

At JPMorgan, Combs is being tapped to oversee part of a new venture announced in October that the bank has called its Security and Resiliency Initiative. The biggest U.S. bank has said it would pour $1.5 trillion into industries crucial to national economic security over the next 10 years — a 50% increase from what it would have provided anyway.

Alongside that financing commitment, the strategic investment group, which Combs will lead, will see the bank invest as much as $10 billion of its own capital to help certain companies expand, innovate or accelerate strategic manufacturing in key sectors like critical minerals.

For the role, he'll be based in New York City and will join the company in 2026 and report directly to Dimon.

Combs is the ideal candidate for the role having "successfully managed investments alongside the most respected and successful long-term investor of our time, Warren Buffett," Dimon said in the statement.

He'll also work closely with leaders including Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh, who are co-CEOs of the commercial and investment bank. The two executives have long been seen as potential successors for Dimon.

Berkshire separately announced a handful of leadership changes Monday across its operations as the company prepares for Buffett to step down. Those include Charles Chang replacing retiring Chief Financial Officer Marc Hamburg and Nancy Pierce taking over as Geico CEO, according to a separate statement.

Buffett's company also announced it would create a general counsel position, a new spot at the firm that previously mostly relied on an outside law firm. Michael O'Sullivan, who has worked at Snap Inc., will become the general counsel at Berkshire in 2026.

In addition to Bezos and Farley, the lender's external advisory council for the SRI will include business leaders like Michael Dell and prominent political figures such as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.