After beating cancer, Jamie Dimon — like many survivors — is looking to give back after a life in banking.
The 56-year-old JPMorgan Chase chief executive is considering philanthropy and teaching when he leaves the bank he’s helmed for 10 years, he said during his first public appearance in New York since finishing the cancer treatment last month.
“I still want to make it a better world,” he said Tuesday at the Javits Center for an industry conference. “I think when I’m done with this, I’m going to do it more directly.”
While he didn’t give any time frame as to when he’s leaving the bank, he’s reportedly said he would like to keep his job for another five years.
“I still love what I do, and I still want to do something,” he said.
The remarks were the first time he spoke publicly about his cancer diagnosis, the treatment, and how it affected him and his family.
“It was terrifying to hear it,” he said.
“In some ways, it was very solitary to go through,” he added.
Dimon announced that he was diagnosed with throat cancer in July and finished radiation and chemotherapy treatments last month.
The Wall Street scion, wearing a somber-looking gray suit and blue patterned tie, said he would still go into work on days when he didn’t have to spend all day at the hospital, but even then he would sometimes take naps on a couch.
“Physically, it knocks the hell out of you,” he said.
“I wasn’t trying to be Superman,” he said, “but my alternative was to sit at home and watch the news, like ISIS.”
The experience was hard on his family, and he said he felt like he was subjecting them to those hardships.
“I wouldn’t call it courage — I wouldn’t call it anything like that — because you have no friggin’ choice,” he said.
Dimon spoke just blocks from the Hudson Yards development on the far West side of Manhattan, where his bank is exploring moving its headquarters.
The bank had reportedly tried to get about $1 billion in tax breaks to move offices, though Mayor de Blasio has called that a”nonstarter” while leaving some room for tax breaks.