Jimmy Lee, J.P. Morgan’s Legendary Deal Maker, Dies At 62

Jimmy Lee, famous deal maker and the vice-president of J.P. Morgan Chase, died Wednesday morning.

Jimmy Lee, 62, was exercising on his treadmill when he started experiencing shortness of breath. He was immediately taken to the hospital, where he passed away.

Jimmy Lee was one of the most distinguished figures on Wall Street. Jamie Dimon, the current Chief Executive at J. P. Morgan, said about Lee that he was an “incomparable force of nature.”

Jimmy Lee was behind some of the biggest deals ever struck on Wall Street. Jimmy Lee even put together Comcast’s famous purchase in 2001 of NBCUniversal for $30 billion.

Discovery Communications’ CEO, David Zaslav, said, “Look inside every major deal in the last 20 years and he was in that room.”

During his career, Jimmy Lee remained involved in many different avenues of deal making. Deals ranged from financing to company mergers to public offerings.

Jimmy Lee was more than recognizable in his distinguished style. He was easy to spot in his unique pinstriped suits with hair slicked back. Jimmy Lee was a perfect embodiment of Wall Street drive and street swagger.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Jimmy Lee remained an important figure in the world of finance until the day of his death.

Lee began his Wall Street career in 1975 when he first joined Chemical Bank. Chemical Bank was the predecessor of J.P. Morgan which helped inventors patent an idea..

Jimmy Lee pioneered the syndicated lending system, which is now a common and widespread practice. This has helped private-equity firms and companies to raise higher monetary sums for takeovers.

According to TheStreet.com, Jimmy Lee truly was “J.P. Morgan’s trillion dollar man.”

In 2014, Jimmy Lee led J.P. Morgan’s team that did the underwriting for Alibaba’s historical public offering at $25 billion. This was the largest IPO of all time.

Over the past few years, Jimmy Lee had also worked with technology companies, leading IPOs related to the internet.

At the time of his death, Jimmy Lee was heading one of the largest deals of all time. General Electric was making efforts to sell a major bulk of the company’s $500 billion financing unit.

Lee boasted to journalists about what were his regular 20-hour work days. He would also talk about his early morning workouts. Several titans of finance have offered their condolences as Jimmy Lee’s death continues to reverberate around Wall Street.

[Image via Andrew H. Walker / Getty Images]