摩根大通吉米•戴蒙：什么时候必须公开CEO的健康状况

    上周二，摩根大通（JPMorgan Chase）董事长兼首席执行官吉米•戴蒙告知公司员工及股东，他已被诊断出患有可治愈的喉癌，而且预后效果非常好。

    虽然诊断结果显示戴蒙的生命看来没有受到威胁，但人们仍然要问，谁会接替他执掌摩根大通。此外，戴蒙的声明还带来了一个更大的问题，那就是对于CEO的健康状况，人们到底应该了解哪些信息。

    美国总统定期接受体检，而且每隔几年都会公布体检结果（美国总统奥巴马6月份刚刚进行了体检，医生的结论是他很健康，原因是他“每天都运动，不抽烟，偶尔适度饮酒。”）企业负责人往往牢固地跟本公司的财务表现联系在一起，他们是否也该这样做呢？

    摩根大通发言人上周三告诉《财富》（Fortune）杂志，公司从未要求戴蒙定期体检。不过，一位接近戴蒙的人士告诉我们，他确实定期体检，原因是戴蒙“很关心自己的健康，而且经常跟妻子儿女一起打网球、跑步”。

    猎头公司Korn Ferry副董事长丹尼斯•凯里指出，这是摩根大通的情况，各公司在这方面的做法当然各不相同。Korn Ferry曾牵头为3M、美国电话电报公司（AT&T）和欧迪办公（Office Depot）等公司规划CEO招聘和继任事务。

    人们都知道，各家公司都会为CEO购买所谓的“关键人物”保险，投保金额根据高管对公司的贡献决定，目的是防止这些高层人员身故导致公司陷入财务困境。ABD Insurance and Financial Services执行副总裁基思•马丁森指出，签订保险合同前，一般都会要求企业负责人披露所有的健康风险。而且，CEO可能每年或者每隔一段时间都要进行体检，目的是尽早发现重大疾病，具体如何执行则取决于保险合同。

    摩根大通发言人称，公司并没有给戴蒙够买保险，不过他可能参加了公司最高层的集体保险。

    凯里说，他一直建议客户从外部招聘高管时至少把压力测试作为尽职调查的一部分。他说：“有时候，为了把某位高管（从前任雇主那里）挖过来，一家公司要付出数千万美元的资金，结果却发现这位高管有病在身。这种情况在《财富》200强企业中比较普遍。在排名低一些的中型企业中，出现这种情况的公司较少。”

    虽然在高管身体健康的问题上并没有统一的标准可循，但一般来说，美国证券交易委员会的规定要求各家公司公开披露涉及CEO的实质性信息（即所有可能影响投资者就买卖证券作出决定的信息）。在凯里所说的“后乔布斯时代”，董事会成员和首席执行官需要遵守对这项规定更为宽泛的解释。

    史蒂夫•乔布斯当初被诊断患有癌症并接受肝移植手术时，苹果公司（Apple）对他的病情处理欠妥，已经成为CEO患病时公司处理方式的反面教材。苹果方面从来没有把乔布斯每况愈下的健康情况完全告知投资者，甚至是在乔布斯明显消瘦、开始休假的时候也是如此。美国证券交易委员会后来还对这家公司是否误导投资者进行了调查。

    戴蒙在上周二发布声明的做法跟2012年沃伦•巴菲特被诊断出患有前列腺癌时采用的方法一致。尽管医生说病情“对他的生命没什么威胁，甚至不会让他明显衰弱”，但作为伯克希尔-哈撒韦（Berkshire Hathaway）的董事长兼首席执行官，巴菲特仍然决定致信股东，宣布医生的初步诊断结果。

    凯里说：“出现这种局面时，有的公司会告诉董事会不要插手，史蒂夫•乔布斯的情况就是这方面的典型事例。”

    史蒂芬•甘德尔也参与了这次报道。（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie

    JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon on Tuesday told the company’s employees and shareholders that he’s been diagnosed with curable throat cancer and that his prognosis is excellent.

    While Dimon’s diagnosis isn’t apparently life-threatening, it nonetheless prompted the question of who will succeed him at JPMorgan’s JPM -1.04% helm. But his announcement raised an even broader question: just what is expected of CEOs when it comes to their health?

    The U.S. president receives regular check-ups and discloses the results every few years. (At President Barack Obama’s last exam in June, doctors deemed him healthy since he “exercises daily, remains tobacco-free, and only drinks alcohol occasionally and in moderation.”) Is the same expected of business leaders, who are often indelibly linked to a company’s financial performance?

    A JPMorgan spokesman told Fortune on Wednesday that the company has no requirement that Dimon receive regular check-ups. Though he gets regular exams anyway because, as a person close to Dimon told us, the JPMorgan CEO “focuses on his health, regularly playing tennis and running with his wife and kids.”

    While that’s the case at JPMorgan, practices certainly vary from company to company, says Dennis Carey of Korn Ferry, who has led CEO recruitment and succession planning efforts for companies like 3M, AT&T, and Office Depot.

    Companies are known to buy so-called “key person” insurance policies for their CEOs, which put a dollar amount on executives’ contributions to the company and protects against a financial hardship should they die. Before those policies are issued, a CEO is usually required to disclose any health risks, says Keith Martinsen, executive vice president at ABD Insurance and Financial Services. And, depending on the policy, a CEO might also be expected to get a physical every year or so, the hope being that any catastrophic illness would be caught early.

    The JPMorgan spokesman said that the bank has no specific insurance policy on Dimon, though he may be covered by a group plan for the bank’s top employees.

    Carey says he always advises his clients to include at least a stress test as part of their due diligence when hiring executives from the outside. “In some cases, companies are billing out tens of millions of dollars to buy out an executive [from a previous employer] only to find out that the exec has an illness,” Carey says. “It’s more prevalent in the Fortune 200 and less so as you go down into mid-market companies.”

    While there is no overarching standard on how to handle an executive’s health, in general, boards of directors and CEOs are adhering to a more liberal interpretation of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rule that requires companies to publicly disclose material information about a CEO (i.e. anything that would influence an investor’s decision to buy or sell securities) in what Carey referred to as the “post-Jobs era.”

    When Steve Jobs was diagnosed with cancer and received a liver transplant, Apple’s mishandling of his sickness became the standard of what not to do when a CEO falls ill. The company never fully informed investors about Job’s failing health, even as the Apple founder became noticeably thin and took leaves of absence. The SEC later investigated whether the company had misled investors.

    Dimon’s announcement on Tuesday mirrors the approach Warren Buffett took when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012. Even though doctors had said it was “not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful way,” the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO chose to announce his early-stage diagnosis in a letter to shareholders

    “The Steve Jobs situation was the tour de force in terms of reminding boards to get out in front of this sort of stuff,” Carey says.

    Additional reporting by Stephen Gandel.