Mary Callahan Erdoes arrives for a meeting seven minutes late, apologizing profusely. The CEO of
If you really want to see something crazy, look at the high-energy Erdoes' workload—and her results. Over the past year she's shepherded the bank's high-net-worth clients through a volatile spring, flown around the world to meet with heads of state and billionaires, spoken at big forums, including the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and even helped fetch a record price for a venerable sports franchise. She also played a high-profile role as the most senior member of Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon's operating committee.
All the while, she's spearheaded an industry-leading initiative to make AI central to everything the 30,000 employees on her team do, while driving record growth and earnings. In the second quarter, revenues from asset management and the global private bank hit $5.8 billion, up 10% from a year earlier, while net income jumped 17% to $1.47 billion.
Assets under management surged 18% to $4.3 trillion.
The energy and sense of momentum is palpable. "It's been a tremendous year," Erdoes says. "We're in go-mode on almost everything."
Ebrahim Poonawala, head of North American bank research for BofA Securities, calls AWM
More than anything nowadays, Erdoes is an AI evangelist. She views it as a magic bullet for boosting productivity and efficiency—a way to clear the clutter of what she calls "the no-joy pieces" of employees' work and allow them to focus on things that can drive personal and business success.
Erdoes says AI proved its worth during the April stock swoon, filling advisor screens with notes on client preferences that allowed them to jump straight into offering value-added advice and insights. "We're using AI to get rid of all the gunk and allow people to move onto higher-level thinking," she says.
Erdoes' commitment and enthusiasm have made her something of a role model in the AI world. As a member of the advisory board of Harvard's Digital Data Design Institute, she trades regular insights with top executives from Microsoft, Google and T-Mobile who share her obsession with AI. "Because we're not in competing industries, we can rapidly share the lessons we're learning," she explains.
AWM also works with nearly 700 billionaires; many interact directly with Erdoes. One high-profile offshoot is a sports M&A business that has provided advice and financing for 10 of the last 15 major sports team acquisitions and stadium deals. In March, she helped Boston Celtics owner Wycliffe Grousbeck sell the team for a then-record $6.1 billion, using her connections to canvas the globe for suitors.
"Mary is the rare banker who is world class in both relationship skills and financial structuring," says Robert Kraft, chairman of The Kraft Group, owner of the New England Patriots and other sports properties. "I completely trust her."
With her track record and history, Erdoes is on everyone's short list to replace Dimon, if and when the CEO retires. She quickly dismisses such talk—"everyone here wonders why it's even a discussion"—and declines to say if she even wants the job.
Poonawala thinks she doesn't. "She loves what she's doing and isn't trying to get the next role," he says. That's in part because she already has more impact and influence than many outsiders recognize.
For now, Erdoes remains focused on AWM. She thinks AI and other initiatives can help grow client totals by 50% in the next five years but is quick to add that growth is less a goal than an outcome of good advice.
AWM has nearly 500 research analysts who in 2024 made 11,000 company visits. Erdoes does her own outreach, flying to distant lands to meet with large company CEOs. "The end game is always investment performance," she says. "You will never build a great asset management company if you strive to be the biggest. You have to strive to be the best." There's nothing crazy about that.
