Invested in Detroit

A Conversation with
Jamie Dimon
Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase
Mike Duggan
Mayor of Detroit (2014-Present)
Peter Scher
Global Head of Corporate Responsibility, JPMorgan Chase
Karen Mills (Moderator)
Senior Fellow, Harvard Business School
Administrator, U.S. Small Business Administration (2009-2013)

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James Dimon became Chairman of the Board on December 31, 2006, and has been Chief Executive Officer and President since December 31, 2005. He was President and Chief Operating Officer following JPMorgan Chase’s merger with Bank One Corporation in July 2004. At Bank One he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from March 2000 to July 2004. Before joining Bank One, Mr. Dimon held a wide range of executive roles at Citigroup Inc., the Travelers Group, Commercial Credit Company and American Express Company.
Mr. Dimon is on the Board of Directors of Harvard Business School and Catalyst; Chairman of the Business Roundtable; and a member of The Business Council. He is also on the Board of Trustees of New York University School of Medicine. Mr. Dimon does not serve on the board of any publicly traded company other than JPMorgan Chase.
Mr. Dimon graduated from Tufts University and received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Mike Duggan was elected Mayor of the City of Detroit on November 5, 2013, and re-elected to a second term on November 7, 2017. Duggan, born in Detroit, has spent his entire career working in the city to solve some of the most complex issues facing Detroiters, including crime, blight and access to jobs. 
In his first term, Mayor Duggan got to work restoring basic city services for all Detroiters. He established the Department of Neighborhoods, placing staff in each of the seven city council districts to help residents address concerns of blight in their community.  He also took an active role in projects that installed more than 60,000 new LED street lights to streets, some left in the dark for years, removed nearly 13,000 blighted and abandoned houses and dramatically improved police and EMS response times, bringing them down to the national average. 
He also returned financial accountability, working with City Council to pass three consecutive balanced budgets in FY2015, FY2016 and FY2017, which led to significant upgrades in the City’s bond rating.  
The mayor has continued to bring down blighted houses, laying out a plan to address all vacant structures over the next two years, whether through demolition, renovation or boarding them up in the interim.  He also created Project Green Light, which partners with more than 300 Detroit businesses so far to provide real time, high definition video from the businesses to a new multi-million dollar Real Time Crime Center.  Since the program was launched two years ago, major crimes at participating businesses has decreased by nearly 40%.  
Now in his second term and with city services back to levels Detroiters expect and deserve, Duggan has turned his attention to building “One Detroit for Everyone.”  This mission of an equitable revitalization has included creating and preserving affordable housing, revitalizing long-neglected neighborhoods, and ensuring every Detroiter has access to jobs and job trainings through the Detroit at Work program. 
Duggan’s vision for the redevelopment of Detroit is based on eight principles: 
1.    Everyone is welcome in our city
2.    We won’t support a development if Detroiters are moved out so others can move into their homes
3.    We will fight economic segregation – every area of Detroit will have a place for people of all incomes
4.    Blight removal is critical – but we must save every house we can
5.    We will work to build neighborhoods of density – where your daily needs can be met within walking distance of your home
6.    Those who stayed will have an active voice in shaping their neighborhood’s redevelopment
7.    Jobs and opportunities will be brought close to the neighborhoods whenever possible – and made available first to Detroiters
8.    The Detroit Riverfront belongs to everyone 
Duggan, who was born in Detroit, has remained committed to the city throughout his career.  As a young boy, he lived on Stansbury near Fenkell and Schaefer on the city’s west side and attended Catholic Central High School when it was still in the city on W. Outer Drive.   While most of his friends were leaving Michigan to attend college in places like New York and Chicago, Duggan was committed to staying in the Detroit area and attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for his undergraduate studies and law school. 
Duggan’s first job out of college was at a law firm in downtown Detroit, to which he rode the bus to work every day until he could afford his first car.  He later was hired to work in the Wayne County law department and before long was tapped to serve as Deputy Wayne County Executive under Ed McNamara from 1987 through 2000.  
It was in his role as Deputy CEO that Duggan’s management skills and commitment to his hometown began to display themselves. 
During his tenure Duggan oversaw 14 straight balanced budgets and a fully funded pension system, led the effort to bring the Detroit Lions back downtown, Co-chaired the construction of Comerica Park and Ford Field, and negotiated the deal with the Clinton Administration that led to the construction Metro Airport’s spectacular midfield terminal.
During this time he also stepped in to run the SMART bus system, which was facing the threat of shutting down.  In three years, he turned around the organization’s finances and partnered with unions to improve reliability, expand service in Detroit and increase ridership. 
As Wayne County Prosecutor from 2001-2003, Duggan led efforts to reduce gun crime and to address the problem of vacant homes across Detroit by seizing 1,000 abandoned homes and selling them to new owners who fixed them up and got them reoccupied. 
Before running for Mayor, Duggan again partnered with workers and unions to lead the Detroit Medical Center out of near bankruptcy and back to profitability in his first year (2004).  Today, the DMC is undergoing $850 million in new construction as part of a deal Duggan negotiated as CEO. 
As Mayor, Duggan continues to be accessible to residents, attending at least one home gathering each week to help him keep in touch with Detroit residents, their needs and their evaluation of the city’s progress. 
Duggan and his wife, Lori, are the proud parents of four adult children, Mary, Eddie, Carolyn and Patrick.

Peter L. Scher is Chairman of the Mid-Atlantic region and Global Head of Corporate Responsibility for JPMorgan Chase & Co. He also serves as a member of the firm’s Operating Committee.
Scher serves as the firm’s senior executive in the Mid-Atlantic region — now representing the third largest economy in the United States — with commercial banking, asset management and investment banking offices throughout Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.
In addition, Scher oversees a number of global functions for the firm, including Government Relations and Public Policy, Philanthropy, Sustainable Finance, Nonprofit Engagement and the JPMorgan Chase Institute. He is Chairman of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, one of the largest corporate foundations in the United States and has led the development of a number of the firm’s flagship programs, including the $150 million investment in Detroit’s revitalization. Fortune Magazine highlighted the impact of the Detroit investment in ranking JPMorgan Chase No. 1 on its 2017 “Change the World” list, which recognizes companies that have had measurable social impact through activities that are a part of their core business strategy. In 2016 and 2017, Scher was named by Washington Life Magazine to their list of the 100 most influential people in the U.S. capital region, noting his years of experience in navigating the intersection of business and the public sector.
Prior to joining JPMorgan Chase in 2008, Scher was the Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C. office of Mayer Brown LLP and earlier served as the Chairman of the firm's Government and Global Trade Practice. He was selected by Chambers USA as one of the “Leading Lawyers” for 2005, 2006 and 2007, recognized for his “depth of understanding particularly with regard to financial institutions competing in international markets.”
Scher spent nearly a decade in public service. Nominated by President Clinton, he was confirmed by the United States Senate as U.S. Special Trade Ambassador and served as one of the lead U.S. negotiators on China's entry into the World Trade Organization. He previously served as Chief of Staff for the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Department of Commerce, Staff Director for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and Chief of Staff to former U.S. Senator Max Baucus. He also served as U.S. Representative to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) Business Advisory Council.
Scher serves on the Board of Trustees for American University and the Brookings Institution and the Board of Directors of the Greater Washington Partnership and the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Atlantic Council task force on EuroGrowth.
Scher received his B.A. from American University (AU) and his J.D. from AU's Washington College of Law.

Karen Gordon Mills is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Business School and a leading authority on U.S. competitiveness, entrepreneurship and innovation. She was a member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, serving as the Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration from 2009 to 2013, and is an expert on the economic health and well-being of the nation’s small businesses.
Mills frequently provides analysis and insight on the small business lending market and its impact on the nation’s economy, including on the rapid growth of “fintech” online lenders, which she details in two working papers: The State of Small Business Lending: Innovation and Technology and Implications for Regulation (November 2016) and  The State of Small Business Lending: Credit Access in the Recovery and How Technology May Change the Game  (July 2014). With a focus on the link between entrepreneurship and middle-class opportunity, she authored portions of the U.S. Competitiveness project’s reports The Challenge of Shared Prosperity and Growth and Shared Prosperity, as well as contributed to the University of Virginia’s Milstein Commission’s report Can Startups Save the American Dream?. 
Mills is President of MMP Group, which invests in financial services, consumer products and technology-enabled solutions sector businesses. She currently serves as a director of several fast-growing entrepreneurial companies, including First Aid Beauty, and is Vice Chair of Envoy, an immigration services provider. She is Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Private Capital Research Institute and serves as a co-Chair, with former U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe, of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Main Street Finance Task Force. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Harvard Corporation. She was previously a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and is a past Vice Chair of the Harvard Overseers.
In Obama’s Cabinet as SBA Administrator, she served on the President’s National Economic Council and as a key member of the White House economic team. At SBA, she led a team of more than 3,000 employees and managed a loan guarantee portfolio of over $100 billion. Mills is credited with turning around the agency, streamlining loan programs, decreasing processing times and reducing paperwork, which led to record-breaking years for SBA lending and investments in growth capital. Additionally, Mills led efforts to help small businesses create regional economic clusters, gain access to early-stage capital, boost exports, and tap into government and commercial supply chains.
Prior to SBA, Mills held leadership positions in the private sector, including as a partner in several private equity firms, and served on the boards of Scotts Miracle-Gro and Arrow Electronics. In 2007, Maine Governor John Baldacci appointed Mills to Chair Maine’s Council on Competitiveness and the Economy, where she focused on regional development initiatives, including a regional economic cluster with Maine’s boatbuilding industry.
Mills earned an AB in economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar. She is a recipient of the U.S. Department of the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award, and is a frequent guest on news outlets, including Bloomberg radio and TV, and opinion writer, with recent placements in Fortune, Forbes, The Hill, Harvard Business Review and American Banker.