[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

James "Jes" Staley, longtime JPMorgan Chase executive, who served as head of investment banking until this summer, is leaving the bank to join BlueMountain Capital Management, where he'll be a managing partner.  Two years ago, the former investment bank chairman told Fortune Magazine he would leave if a CEO position weren't available to him. 

See C-I's earlier Who's News posts:  [Jes Staley For CEO: Not At JPMorgan?] and [JPMorgan's Jes Stayley: Moving Up Or Out?].

The 9-year old hedge fund with $12 billion under management, had a bonding experience with JPMorgan this past year.  BlueMountain took the other side of the bet that JPM's London Whale had positioned.  What cost the bank billions, provided a hundreds of millions in profits for BlueMountain and other aggressive hedge funds.  They also executed another series of trades to help JPMorgan wind down its inventory.  Including those profits, BlueMountain's flagship fund was up more than 10% in 2012.

Interesting enough, Mr. Staley has been with JPMorgan for 34 year, stretching from the original J.P. Morgan & Company.  Among his various roles and venues at the bank, Mr. Staley worked in the Brazilian office, served as head of equity capital markets and syndicate divisions, and as head of wealth management.

At BlueMountain, Staley will serve as the firm's 9th managing partner.  He will acquire an unspecified stake in the company.  As noted in an internal memo informing Senior Managers of Jes Staley's move, Jamie Dimon noted that BlueMountain is a Chase client, so he'll never be that far away from his old employer.

[C-I Note: From our vantage point, hiring Mr. Staley – in addition to CEO Andrew Feldstein who left JPMorgan in 2003 – would seem like a good bet.]

For further details, go to [CNBC, 1/8/13] and  [Dealbook, 1/8/13].