Joining J.P. Morgan in Tokyo in March 2008, Chris LaFleur has successfully transitioned to the private sector from a prestigious 35-year career in the United States Department of State, culminating in his 2004 appointment as the United States Ambassador to Malaysia.

Question:  What are your first impressions since joining J.P. Morgan ?

Chris LaFleur:  I was very happy to join the firm for two reasons. Firstly, the corporate culture is one that values its people. I recently attended the Investment Bank’s new MD orientation session in New York and was quite impressed by the time that Steve Black and Bill Winters devoted to the session. It was indicative of senior leaders’ focus on developing and cultivating the firm’s most important asset – its people.

As for my second reason, having spent a large part of my government career on the U.S.-Japan relationship, I am more convinced than ever that one key to success in Asia is having a strong base in Japan. Many American business leaders are riveted by growth figures in China and India. Without denying for a moment the enormous potential of those economies, there remains tremendous opportunity in Japan for those who understand the market and are prepared to commit to the long term here. Change usually happens at a deliberate pace in Japan, but once momentum is developed it can be a powerful sustaining force over the long term. I was very impressed that the J.P. Morgan Chase leadership is focused on doing more in Japan as well.

Q:  What do you see are the main opportunities for J.P. Morgan in Japan?

LaFleur:  More potential clients have become aware that not only have we have been operating here since 1924 but also that today we have a broader global reach.  This is helping generate increased business as the Japanese look for better returns from their sizeable individual savings and corporate and government capital reserves. Privatization of government assets can also open up new opportunities. In addition, Japanese companies have generally been less affected than foreign counterparts by recent market turbulence and are in a position to do more at home and overseas. Our Japan businesses have been involved in a number of prominent and innovative deals in recent months and have moved to the top in rankings in a number of areas.

Q:  Can you tell us about your 35 year career in government?

LaFleur:  My career with the U.S. State Department focused mostly on Asia apart from some time spent at the U.S. Embassy in Paris and at the United Nations. Though I joined the Department speaking Chinese, on my first assignment I was sent to Japan! That was back in the 1970s when I spent six-and- a-half years at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and the U.S. Consulate in Sapporo. During my second four-year stint in Japan from 1985-1989 I helped manage the U.S. alliance with Japan, one of the United States’ most important strategic security relationships. Then from 1997-2001, I was deputy chief of mission at the Embassy during the height of the Asian financial crisis.

Apart from Japan, I also worked in Taipei where I was #2 at the office that handles U.S. relations, and from 2004-2007, I was the United States ambassador to Malaysia, based in Kuala Lumpur, where we worked hard to strengthen ties to one of the most successful majority Muslim countries in the world.

Q:  After such an acclaimed career in the diplomatic and government service, what made you decide to move into the financial industry?

LaFleur: After 35 years in the same career it is good to have fresh challenges. My wife, who is Japanese, owns her own company here in Tokyo, so we are settled here for the time being. I believe that it is an interesting time to join the private sector, particularly in view of the role of the financial industry in shaping the global economy.
  
Take the environment for example. Global warming cannot be addressed without effective financial tools. J.P. Morgan is playing a major role in developing markets for carbon trading. The financial industry can do more as governments do more, including here in Japan. In Europe the framework is already being put into place, Japan is also getting started and perhaps the U.S. will do so on a nationwide basis soon.

Q:  With your background in the U.S. State Department, one of your key roles at J.P. Morgan is developing the firm’s Government Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility agendas in Japan. What are your plans?

LaFleur:  To bolster our business opportunities, we are working on ensuring that more leaders in government and industry understand our capabilities and our commitment to the market. For example, we think we can contribute even more to the Japanese government’s efforts to realize a higher return on public assets.  We also participate actively in discussions here among concerned government agencies and business counterparts on ways to strengthen Japan’s position as the leading Asian regional financial center. In pursuit of this objective, this summer Japan’s Diet passed a reform bill which will help financial firms such as ours become more cost-efficient and better organized to serve clients.

The Corporate Social Responsibility part of our operation has benefited greatly from the enthusiasm of our employees. J.P. Morgan volunteers have helped clean up Mt. Fuji’s nature trails, assisted the Special Olympics for handicapped children and joined in a 100 kilometer trail walk to raise funds for Oxfam.

The firm has also supported a number of programs in the arts. For example, we recently served as a major sponsor for La Folle Journee, the largest music festival in Japan – more than a million people participated in the festival this year. Most of the major festival events required tickets, but the pavilion we sponsored gave the public a chance to hear many of the festival’s participating musicians play for free. We also sponsored the recent Tokyo performance of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra with soloist and violin prodigy Midori.   In the education area, this year we launched the J.P. Morgan Fellows scholarship program to help Tokyo University’s two top economics students continue their graduate studies. To our knowledge, it’s the first time any company has sponsored such a program here.

These efforts underline our commitment, not only to doing business in our market, but also to serving our community. In addition, a strong corporate responsibility program not only enhances the firm’s reputation, but also strengthens our company since our colleagues value their association with the firm’s strong record in this area.  Good CSR makes good business sense.

We are looking to expand our corporate responsibility program in Japan commensurate with our growth plans for this market. We will continue to fund arts and education programs and increase our work on some of the social problems which Japan is experiencing now and which many other countries may face in the future. For example, the increasing number of aged in relation to the younger population means that care of the elderly, especially those without families, is becoming an urgent issue.

Q:  How can employees get involved in some of these programs?

LaFleur:  Developing more opportunities for employees to participate personally in our CSR programs is one of our foremost objectives. A good number of employees are already actively participating in charity runs. We will shortly be helping to clean up a school for handicapped children; sprucing it up ahead of their annual festival, at which J.P. Morgan staff will also be helping run the activity booths. We would like to see our future programs focus as much on personal involvement as on financial contributions.

Q:  As an American, what is it like doing business in Japan?

LaFleur:  Japan has highly complex business and social structures and understanding how these operate is critical to success. In particular, personal relationships built over time are extremely important, so this is not a market where deals usually get done quickly. However, persistence pays off. The fact that we’ve been here for many decades helps generate confidence that I think will be very important to expanding our business in the future.

Q:  Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to do more business in Japan?

LaFleur:  If you look at Japan through the lenses presented by much of the international news media, you may have the impression that the bubble economy and its aftereffects linger on, but the fact is Japan remains the second largest economy in the world, has just experienced the longest economic expansion in post-war history, and retains tremendous financial assets, a strong technological base and, in Tokyo, one of the most efficient and sophisticated capitals in the world.

There is tremendous economic strength here, both realized and potential. Japan is in a transition period which I think will lead to a new phase of growth that may point the way to the future for other leading economies.

A good example is in the area of the environment. Japanese business has adopted techniques and technologies with potential worldwide application. Just take the building where J.P. Morgan has its offices; it strives to be as environmentally friendly as possible: lighting and air conditioning sensors optimize usage and minimize wastage. We also recycle trash, reduced our paper consumption and adopted the government’s recommended office temperature of 28ºC. Those are practices that will need to be applied increasingly worldwide.