JPMorgan chief Dimon known as details man

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jamie Dimon, the head of the Wall Street bank that came to the rescue of Bear Stearns, is a details man, a whiz at numbers, and has a track record of fixing up major banks.

Dimon, who has been chief executive of JPMorgan Chase since January 2006 and once had a penchant for boxing in his spare time, is known for his shrewd business judgment.

"Jamie Dimon has consistently showed that he is the canniest guy on Wall Street," said Michael Ryan, a lawyer with Cleary Gottlieb. "JPMorgan has largely escaped the woes of its brethren, leaving it freer than anyone to take advantage of consolidation opportunities."

JPMorgan declined comment.

JPMorgan on Friday announced it teamed up with the Federal Reserve to provide emergency funds for Bear Stearns after Bear's cash position significantly deteriorated in a 24-hour period.

The cash infusion deal was hashed out late Thursday, said a source familiar with the banks' discussions. Indeed, Dimon was celebrating his 52nd birthday over a family dinner when he got calls about Bear's plight.

JPMorgan's move is just as provider of emergency cash, although it said on Friday that it was "working closely with Bear Stearns on securing permanent financing or other alternatives." Some expect that JPMorgan will look to buy Bear assets, and even to consider a full buyout of the company.

A person familiar with JPMorgan on Friday said the bank is interested, at the right price, in buying the Bear division that provides loans and handles trades for hedge funds.

And Dimon is seen as able to move to take advantage of Bear's current situation.

He made his mark as leader of Citigroup's Salomon Smith Barney unit with Deryck Maughan and was considered heir-apparent to Citigroup co-Chief Executive Sanford "Sandy" Weill until his 1998 ouster following a falling out with his mentor, Weill.

Dimon, who holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, is known to be financially astute and keen on lean operations -- qualities that delivered results.

"He's likely to make a boat load of cash for JPMorgan," said a portfolio manager at a Boston-based fund company. "He's quite a manager and he's going to be making hay buying basically distressed assets at greatly distressed prices. And over the next few years, as long as we do get out of this credit crisis, he's going to do particularly well."

Charles Peabody, analyst at independent research firm Portales Partners, said, however, that buying Bear didn't seem to make strategic sense.

"Even if you were to give Bear away, I think any buyer would need several protections put in place," Peabody said. "By Bear announcing the liquidity infusion today and not announcing a buyer -- that shows me that the didn't have a buyer immediately available."

Following his ouster from Citigroup, Dimon landed at Chicago-based Bank One Corp in 2000 as chairman and chief executive of the No. 6 U.S. bank, but one with problems. He proved adept at turning around the bank, which was acquired by JPMorgan Chase in July 2004.

A year after being named CEO of JPMorgan Chase, he added the chairman's title. Unlike many Wall Street rivals, JPMorgan posted higher profits for its fiscal third quarter -- though just 2 percent -- despite a large write-down on leveraged loans.

The hard-working Dimon likes playing the guitar and listening to music like Frank Sinatra. He and his wife, Judy, have three daughters.

ECHOES OF 1907

Dimon's move to step into the brink for Bear Stearns echoes the Panic of 1907 when company founder J. Pierpont Morgan led the charge to stop the bleeding on Wall Street.

"Today's action demonstrates the courage of Jamie Dimon and the leadership of JPMorgan in extremely tense times," said Robert Bruner, author of "The Panic of 1907" and dean of the Darden Business School at the University of Virginia. "This rescue will likely mark one of the more important events of the current crisis."

"We've seen the pattern before," he added. "In the worst moments of market anxiety, leaders step in to rescue the pivotal institutions. In 1907, JPM rescued a trust company, the New York Stock Exchange, the city of New York, and various banks and brokerage firms."

(Additional reporting by Jui Chakravorty in New York, Jessica Hall in Philadelphia, Muralikumar Anantharaman in Boston, Joseph Giannone and Dan Wilchins in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)