Now JPMorgan's AI guru also left for something else

When Tucker Balch joined JPMorgan in 2019, it was the source of some excitement. Balch, who has a plume of blonde hair and a devoted following among quants of a certain vintage, joined as a managing director in the then-newly formed AI research group. Five years later, he's gone. He's going back to academia. 

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Writing on social media, Balch said that yesterday was his last day at the bank. During his tenure, he built a team of 24 researchers and seven developers and worked on cryptographic trading systems, among other things. 

Balch said: "JPMorgan’s AI Research group is strong under Manuela Veloso’s leadership. It remains the number one place in banking for serious work at the intersection of AI and Finance. Her team’s reputation, and my experience there has afforded me the opportunity to join the Goizueta Business School at Emory University as a professor in Finance. I’m excited to be able to teach the next batch of talent on Wall Street. It is natural and normal for talent at top research labs to move to academia (and back). Don’t read too much into it."

It has not escaped our notice that Balch has announced his exit from JPMorgan during the same week that Samik Chandarana, the former head of digital banking in JPMorgan's corporate and investment bank also revealed his intention of having a long vacation, after leaving the bank in London.  

JPMorgan also declined to comment on Chandarana's departure, but it's thought that his exit may have something to do with the bank's fusion of the commercial and investment bank in January, with the result that a dedicated head of digital in the investment bank became superfluous.

For the moment, Balch is still proudly displayed on JPMorgan's website. Presumably he will be taken down, soon. 

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