James Crown, a billionaire investor and longtime director of JPMorgan Chase, died in a car racing accident in Colorado on Sunday.
According to the local coroner, Crown, 70, died in a car accident at Aspen Motorsports Park on Sunday. The Pitkin County Coroner’s Office said the crash is under investigation.
Crown was chairman of the Aspen Institute, which currently hosts its annual festival in the area.
“We love and admire Jim and the Crown Family,” the Aspen Institute said in a statement. “Jim has been a friend to so many and an important member of our Board of Trustees. We mourn his passing and ask that the privacy of the Crown family be respected at this time.”
Part of a wealthy Chicago family, Crown was the grandson of an industrialist and investor. He had taken over the management of the family investment firm, named after his grandfather, Henry Crown, which invests in public and private companies and real estate. He had served on the board of directors of General Dynamics, which acquired his grandfather’s company, since 1987 and joined the board of directors of Chicago-based Bank One in 1991.
At Bank One, he helped hire Jamie Dimon as CEO. A few years later, they sold Bank One to JPMorgan in a 2004 merger. Crown remained the largest single owner on JPMorgan’s board with a 0.4% stake valued at $1.7 billion. (Dimon now holds 0.3%)
Dimon told his board he was “shocked and saddened”.
“Our thoughts are also with everyone who knew and loved Jim, as much as I do,” Dimon said in the message, which was released to the media. “He was an integral part of JPMorgan Chase and our lives, and we will miss his presence greatly.”