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06 Apr 2009

Jamie Dimon to Deliver Keynote at 2009 Harvard Business School Class Day

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BOSTON — Harvard Business School has announced that James Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., will be the School's 2009 Class Day keynote speaker.

Hailed by the Financial Times in March as one of the 50 People Who Will Frame the Way Forward out of the financial crisis, Dimon graduated from HBS in 1982 with high distinction as a Baker Scholar - an honor bestowed on the top five percent of each graduating MBA class. He became chairman of the board of JP Morgan Chase on December 31, 2006, and has been the firm's CEO and president since December 31, 2005. He had been president and chief operating officer since JPMorgan Chase's merger with Bank One Corporation in July 2004.

The HBS Class Day ceremony will be held on Wednesday, June 3rd (the day before the Harvard University Commencement exercises), on Baker Lawn on the School's campus in Boston. It will include a welcome from the presidents of the MBA Class of 2009, faculty awards, and a student speaker. The ceremony with conclude with Mr. Dimon's remarks.

The Class Day keynote speaker is selected each year by a student committee responsible for planning the event. Suggestions are provided by the entire graduating class by means of a poll sent to them earlier in the year by the committee's chairperson.

The event is open to members of the graduating class, their guests, HBS alumni, and faculty and staff.

General information about Harvard University Commencement activities, including schedule and ticket information, can be found on the University's Commencement Office website.

About James Dimon
James "Jamie" Dimon began his professional career at American Express Company, serving as assistant to the president from 1982 until 1985. He then became a key member of the team that launched and defined the strategy for Commercial Credit Company in October 1986, when the consumer lending company was spun off from Control Data Corporation. He served as chief financial officer and an executive vice president, and then president. A completely restructured Commercial Credit made numerous acquisitions and divestitures, substantially improving its profitability. Most significantly, in 1987 it acquired and changed its name to Primerica Corporation, which in 1993 acquired The Travelers Corporation and was renamed Travelers Group. At Travelers, Dimon was president and chief operating officer for seven years. He was named chairman and CEO of its Smith Barney Inc. subsidiary in January 1996, having previously been the firm's chief operating and chief administrative officer. In November 1997, with the merger of Smith Barney and Salomon Brothers, he became co-chairman and co-CEO of the combined firm. In 1998, he was named president of Citigroup Inc., the global financial services company formed by the combination of Travelers Group and Citicorp in 1998. In addition, he served as chairman and co-CEO of Salomon Smith Barney Holdings Inc., the investment banking and securities brokerage subsidiary. In 2000, Dimon was named Chairman and CEO of Bank One. During his four years with the company, he engineered a dramatic turnaround - taking the bank from a half-billion-dollar loss in 2000 to record earnings of $3.5 billion in 2003. Before earning his MBA from Harvard Business School, Dimon graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University He serves on the boards of a number of nonprofit institutions, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Harvard Business School, and the United Negro College Fund.

About Harvard Business School

Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. Its faculty of more than 250 offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and PhD degrees, as well as more than 175 Executive Education programs, and Harvard Business School Online, the School’s digital learning platform. For more than a century, faculty have drawn on their research, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and their passion for teaching, to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. The School and its curriculum attract the boldest thinkers and the most collaborative learners who will go on to shape the practice of business and entrepreneurship around the globe.

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