Jan 23, 2025 - Business

Sign of the times: JPMorgan Chase launches geopolitical advisory unit

Mike Allen

Illustration of an earth loading graphic spinning over an image of the White House — Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

JPMorgan Chase, responding to a flood of demand from clients, has hired a longtime national security official to launch a geopolitical advisory unit to advise clients and government leaders around the world, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Inquiries have surged with the start of the second Trump administration. But industry officials tell us this isn't just a Trump thing: Over the past few years, business leaders have been caught up in global uncertainty driven by foreign ownership, TikTok, tariffs and more.

Derek Chollet — who in the Biden administration was counselor to Secretary of State Tony Blinken, then chief of staff to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin — will join JPMorgan next month.

Over those four years, Chollet logged thousands of miles across Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Between the lines: Peter Scher, vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase, said business and government leaders "need to know where the puck is going as they make economic and investment decisions. Derek is one of the most experienced and skilled global strategists of our time."

Scher told us that a decade ago, "CEOs were slowly waking up to the fact that they needed to worry a lot more about what was going on in Washington, and the impact that policies can have on their companies."

"Now they recognize that they need to worry as much about what's going on around the world and the impact global political events — from Asia to the Middle East to the war in Ukraine — can have on their bottom lines," Scher added.

Go deeper: Chollet bio.

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Sign of the times: JPMorgan Chase launches geopolitical advisory unit

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