City profiles

Jamie Dimon

The billionaire boss of “America’s largest bank”, JPMorgan Chase, has called on business and government to create a more “inclusive economy” as the US recovers. He thinks the crisis should be used as a catalyst to create opportunity “for dramatically more people, especially those who have been left behind for too long”. Nice words, says The Times. Especially given speculation that Dimon, 64, “has his eyes on the White House” further down the line. Still, his “increasingly regular proclamations on social issues” are somewhat at odds with another achievement. For five years on the trot, he has garnered the title of “Wall Street’s best-paid boss”, taking home $31.5m last year. It might well be said that “we don’t need lessons on inequality from Dimon”.

Masayoshi Son

The Japanese tech incubator SoftBank has just reported its worst annual loss, “dragged down by its misfiring Vision Fund”, says Dealbook in The New York Times. Still, founder “Masa” Son seems to have kept his “trademark optimism and defiance”. On an investor call this week, he conceded that he’d made mistakes – notably the “foolish” decision to invest tens of billions of dollars in the co-worker WeWork. But although WeWork and other “unicorns” are still mired in the “Valley of Coronavirus”, Son is so convinced of his own “redemption” that he has taken to comparing himself to Jesus Christ – noting that the messiah was also “misunderstood and criticised”, but still managed to bounce back. If religion isn’t your bag, he has other role models too. The Beatles, as Son noted, “weren’t initially popular either”.