| His Chase business card reads James Bainbridge Lee, Jr. On Wall Street, he's simply known as Jimmy. In his trademark blue shirt, white collar and cuffs and silver-dollar braces, he looks more like the investment bankers he is trying to beat than a traditional money lender. More Gekko than McGillicuddy. A Chemical man through and through, Lee has yet fully to come to terms with his old bank's merger with Chase, despite the Chase logo being on everything from the garish red entrance lobby of the Park Avenue headquarters building to the wrappers of the sugar that comes with the morning coffee. At 43, Lee looks too young to be head of global investment banking at the largest bank in the US. His boyish smile, his crimped, gelled hair and his tan go with an affability that means more people warm to him than are put off by his oversized ego. But if he says "I" too often where others would say "we", he can be forgiven. After all, his clients tend to say Jimmy when they mean Chase. His corner office is full of plastic-encased tombstones, mementoes of 21 years of lending. |