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Rishi Sunak has put forward JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon and former Google chairman Eric Schmidt for British honors, people familiar with the matter said, as the British prime minister enters his final weeks as president.
Officials were told to start the process in mid-May, one of the people said, with the proposal being routed through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
The British Foreign Office handles the awards for non-British citizens, including honorary knighthoods. The process requires less scrutiny than the route for British citizens handled by the Cabinet Office and its vetting committees, officials said. All awards must be rubber stamped by King Charles III.
It was unclear what level of honor Dimon and Schmidt would ultimately receive. Both men are US citizens. One of Sunak’s ministers said Dimon would be “a strong candidate” for a knighthood.
The award is given to individuals who make “outstanding contributions in any field.”
Dimon is the longest-serving CEO on Wall Street and is known for weathering the 2008 financial crisis and steering JPMorgan to become the largest U.S. bank by assets.
Schmidt led the search giant for a decade as it grew from a start-up to one of Silicon Valley’s largest companies; Since then, he has devoted time to artificial intelligence, U.S. national security and philanthropy.
A person close to the prime minister said Dimon would not receive any British honors and that no trial was underway.
Downing Street, the FCDO and JPMorgan declined to comment. A spokesperson for Schmidt did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The proposed awards for Dimon and Schmidt came after the announcement in March that Stephen Schwarzman, founder of asset manager Blackstone, would receive an honorary British knighthood.
A British diplomat said it “wouldn’t be too surprising” if awards given by Britain’s Conservative government had a “specific flavor to the financial sector”.
They noted that Sunak had lived in the US and worked in finance before becoming an MP in 2015. Sunak worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and then at hedge fund TCI.
Sunak has also shown an interest in the technology sector, pushing to make Britain a leader in AI and hosting the first major global summit on the safety of artificial intelligence at Bletchley Park last year.
The prime minister has been criticized by his rivals for holding a US residency with a green card until 2021, long after he first entered government as a minister in 2018. He and his wife, Akshata Murty, own an apartment in Santa Monica, California.
British opinion polls show Sunak’s Tories trailing the opposition Labor party by 21 points, according to the Financial Times poll. This indicates that Sir Keir Starmer is likely to enter Downing Street after the July 4 general election.
Sunak has insisted he will remain in Britain even if he and his Conservative party are voted out of office.
Previous recipients of British knighthoods include Disney boss Bob Iger in 2022 and media mogul Michael Bloomberg in 2014. Foreign citizens who have been awarded knighthoods or damehoods, the female equivalent, are not referred to as ‘Sir’ or ‘Dame’.
Dimon attended Sunak’s global investment summit at Hampton Court Palace in London in November for A-list CEOs and investors. Last month, he told Sky News during a trip to Britain that he had “huge respect” for Sunak.
But Dimon also confirmed he had also met Starmer, describing both British politicians as “pro-business” and their parties as focused on growth.
Last year, Schmidt and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin made a joint donation of £16 million to the UK Biobank, a biomedical database.
The King’s Birthday Honors List, which is vetted by honorary committees made up of senior officials and independent members, will be published later this month.
However, FCDO awards may be granted on an ad hoc basis. In addition, outgoing prime ministers typically draw up dissolution awards to recognize close allies, which are not vetted by the honors committees but submitted to the Cabinet Office for “honesty and decency checks”.