James Staley, who until recently headed up JP Morgan’s investment banking division, has joined the investment firm BlueMountain Capital Management as a partner. He is also buying a stake in the business.

Staley is a
JP Morgan veteran, having joined the firm 34 years ago, going on to serve as head of the firm’s private bank, CEO of JP Morgan Asset Management, and later CEO of investment banking. He also co-founded the bank’s equities business.

He will use his extensive career to cultivate relationships for BlueMountain, as well as develop new strategies to capture market opportunities. He will join the firm’s management, risk and investment committees.  

He joins the following eight managing partners: Andrew Feldstein, Alan Gerstein, Peter Greatrex, Michael Liberman, Bryce Markus, David Rubenstein, Stephen Siderow and Derek Smith.

BlueMountain will use the funds created by the sale of a stake to Staley to invest in “new infrastructure, technology and talent,” it said. The firm has around $12 billion in assets under management.

"I'm very excited to be joining BlueMountain at a time when sea changes in the financial industry combined with the firm's unique strengths open up enormous possibilities to deliver value to clients," said Staley.

“BlueMountain is an important client of ours, and we look forward to working with Jes in the future,” JP Morgan’s chief executive Jamie Dimon said in a memo to senior managers on Tuesday, according to the New York Times. The memo also thanked Staley for his “decades of dedicated service”.