Jes Staley

Early life

Staley was born on (1956-12-27)December 27, 1956 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 is AIDS activist Peter Staley.

Jes 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 a LGBT friendly company was also recognised. In 2009, Staley was promoted to Chief Executive of the Investment Bank. In this position, Staley was responsible for overseeing and coordinating the firm's international efforts across all lines of business.

In 2013, Staley left J.P. Morgan after more than 30 years to join BlueMountain Capital as a managing partner. In May 2015, he was elected to the board of directors of the Swiss global financial services company UBS as a new member of the Human Resources and Compensation Committee and of the Risk Committee. However, on 28 October 2015, it was announced that Staley would become group chief executive of Barclays, effective 1 December 2015. To avoid any conflicts of interest, UBS accepted his resignation from all of his functions at UBS with immediate effect. In March 2016, he has given his vision for the future of Barclay’s investment bank although the changes he has brought until then have not been well received by the markets.

Staley has bought 2.8m shares in Barclays at 233p – the lowest price at which they have traded since January. Barclays has a policy that directors should own shares worth four times their salaries, which Staley has now achieved, as his salary currently amounts to £1.2m. However, his total remuneration package, including his salary, a fixed pay allowance to avoid the EU cap on bonuses, annual bonuses of up to £2.1m and a long-term incentive plan of £3.2m, is worth £10m.

Staley is a Bowdoin College trustee, serves on the boards of the Robin Hood Foundation, Institute of International Finance, United States-China Business Council, and is a member of the advisory board of the American Museum of Natural History.

Personal life

Staley met his wife Debora Nitzan Staley soon after starting work in South America, "I was Unitarian Boston American and she was Jewish Brazilian São Paulo ... I was her parents' worst nightmare." The family has two daughters, and maintains residences on Park Avenue, New York City, and Southampton, New York. Staley is a Boston Red Sox fan and a devoted Democrat who holds fundraisers. In the past, he has donated money to the Democratic Senatorial Committee. Staley has also reportedly been a big advocate for diversity since discovering that his brother Peter had been diagnosed with HIV. He helped push the diversity agenda at J.P. Morgan.

As of May 2017, Staley is backing his brother-in-law Jorge Nitzan in a dispute that Aceco, a Brazilian technology company founded by the Nitzan family, have with the private equity firm KKR, who are also an important client of Barclays, and in turn KKR have stopped inviting Barclays to participate in its deal making.