Reflecting on the moment when she was asked to share the CEO role of J.P. Morgan's Private Bank, Mary Erdoes frankly discusses the private doubts she had.
"After a couple of months in the job, I started questioning the situation," she writes in a blog post about her experience. "Why wasn't I asked to do the job on my own? Was I lacking in certain areas? Was it because I was a woman and just had my second child?"
Eventually, Erodes overcame the inner turmoil that she initially faced in sharing the leadership role. She eventually became sole CEO and her former co-head moved on to run operations for a huge part of the company.
"To truly become a well-rounded person, you have to embrace all personalities, especially those different from yours," she writes. "When you do that - when you lean into and rise to the occasion -no job is too big."
Through her leadership, those at Morningstar say Erodes has helped J.P. Morgan - with $230 billion in fund assets, excluding money market funds - to stand out in its ability to bring in assets, particularly to equity funds at times when other firms saw outflows.
That sort of performance earned Erdoes accolades from the industry and the press - she is a perennial member of "Most Powerful" lists in financial magazines and one New York tabloid even dubbed her "The New Queen of Wall Street."
Erodes also attributes much of that growth in assets to the firm's investment in technology. In the past five years, the firm has spent more than $400 million each year, increasing its investments by 25% annually.
"It enables us to remain cutting edge on trading, risk and compliance systems for our clients," Erdoes said.
When not attending to firm matters, Erdoes devotes her time to causes and industry issues - she is on the board of the U.S. fund for UNICEF and the U.S.-China Business Council, and serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets.
