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The company says it plans

to hold four such events in

Australian state capitals, in-

cluding Canberra and Mel-

bourne, then expand the ini-

tiative to smaller cities.

Huawei said it hopes “to give

regional Aussies the chance to

find out for themselves the

truth about the company.”

It has enlisted Andy Purdy,

the company’s Washington-

based head of cybersecurity in

the U.S.—and a top cybersecu-

rity official in the George W.

Bush administration—to help

lead the first of the town halls.

It has also recruited Nick Xe-

nophon, a well-known former

Australian lawmaker, to speak

at the events.

Also scheduled: representa-

tives from Huawei-sponsored

programs, including students

from Seeds for the Future—a

month-long work and study

program in China for engi-

neering and technology stu-

dents.

It plans to showcase its

sponsorship of the Canberra

Raiders—a popular profes-

sional rugby league team—to

underscore its role as a good

corporate citizen.

Australia was once a key

Western market for Huawei,

but it has cut its workforce

there to 300, from a peak of

750 just before the 5G ban.

BUSINESS & FINANCE NEWS

Huawei TechnologiesCo.

is bidding to convince citizens

in Australia, one of America’s

closest allies, that its telecom

gear is safe—a grass-roots

fight against the government’s

decision to exclude the Chi-

nese company from its 5G

build-out.

Australia was one of the

first countries to block Huawei

components from new 5G net-

works, superfast wireless tech-

nology that carriers are cur-

rently rolling out around the

world. The U.S. and Australia

allege Huawei gear poses a na-

tional security threat because,

they say, Beijing can compel

Huawei to use it to spy on or

disrupt networks—a charge

Huawei denies.

To change that view, Hua-

wei is taking its case directly

to the people with town-hall

meetings around the country.

It is going for glitz, offering

waterfront views, wine and

canapés to entice guests.

Huawei hopes winning over

the public in Australia—and

New Zealand, where Huawei

officials hope to overturn a

similar ban—could soften up

other jurisdictions.

The first “Let’s Talk Hua-

wei” event is set for next week

in Sydney’s Museum of Con-

temporary Art, a grand, art

deco-inspired building in the

historic Rocks district with

views over the harbor and

Sydney Opera House.

Huawei Takes 5G Pitch Directly to Australians

Steve Ells, the founder of
Chipotle Mexican GrillInc., is
leaving the company after 27
years as part of its leadership,
relinquishing his position of ex-
ecutive chairman.
Brian Niccol, the current
chief executive officer, will take
on the additional title of chair-
man.
Mr. Ells started the casual
Mexican-food chain in 1993 and
served as its CEO until 2017,
when he became executive
chairman.
Under Mr. Ells’s leadership,
the company grew from a sin-
gle shop in Denver to a national

brand with more than 2,
restaurants and 83,000 work-
ers. Chipotle was one of the
first fast-casual restaurants to
emphasize organic and freshly
prepared ingredients. Mr. Ells
stepped down as CEO as Chi-
potle struggled to retain cus-
tomers amid repeated food-
safety scares and rising
competition.
Mr. Niccol became Chipotle’s
CEO in March 2018. He began
his career atProcter & Gamble
Co. and later worked atYum
BrandsInc., where he led a re-
branding for Taco Bell.
In its most recent quarter,
Chipotle’s same-store sales
grew by 13.4% from the prior
year, topping expectations. On
Feb. 19, its stock finished at
$933.84, its highest-ever close.
“Brian has proven that he is
absolutely the right person to
lead Chipotle forward and I’ve
never been more confident
about the future of this great
company,” Mr. Ells said.

BYMATTGROSSMAN

Chipotle

Founder

Leaving

Company

ByRachel Pannett

in Canberra, Australia,

andDan Strumpf

in Hong Kong

Among other things, the company will highlight its sponsorship of the CanberraRaiders rugby team, to show that it’s a good corporate citizen.

WILL RUSSELL/GETTY IMAGES

Gordon Smith and Daniel
Pinto had a message to deliver
toJPMorgan Chase&Co.’sin-
vestment bankers at a meeting
Friday morning following
Chief Executive James Dimon’s
emergency heart surgery: Get
to work.
For now, the bankers and
the rest of JPMorgan’s more
than 250,000 employees are
working for Messrs. Smith and
Pinto.
The JPMorgan co-presi-
dents took the helm at Amer-
ica’s largest bank Thursday af-
ter Mr. Dimon suffered an
acute aortic dissection—a rare
and often fatal heart injury.
Mr. Dimon is “recovering well”
after a successful surgery, the
bank said in a memo to em-
ployees. In the meantime,
Messrs. Smith and Pinto are in
charge.
Mr. Smith, who runs JPMor-
gan’s consumer bank, and Mr.
Pinto, the head of its corporate

and investment bank, have

been at Mr. Dimon’s right hand

since January 2018, when he

named them co-presidents and

laid the foundation for a suc-

cession plan that was set in

motion Thursday.

For now, it is a temporary

arrangement. But should his

illness cause Mr. Dimon to

step down for good, Messrs.

Smith and Pinto are at the top

of the list to succeed him.

Mr. Pinto, 57 years old,

oversees JPMorgan’s deal-

making, trading and corporate-

advisory business. He is also

responsible for the bank’s

treasury-services business,

which manages cash for global

corporations and other finan-

cial institutions.

A native of Argentina, Mr.

Pinto got his start in the bank-

ing business in his early 20s

working as a currency trader

at Manufacturers Hanover

Corp. in Buenos Aires. (Manu-

facturers Hanover is one of the

many banks that ultimately

became part of what is now

JPMorgan.)

After being named sole CEO

of JPMorgan’s corporate bank

in 2014, Mr. Pinto convinced

Mr. Dimon to allow him to

commute to New York from his

home in London.

Mr. Smith, 61, oversees JP-

Morgan’s consumer bank and

its thousands of Chase

branches, as well as its credit-

card, mortgage and auto-lend-

ing businesses. Some 61 mil-

lion U.S. households do

business with Chase.

Mr. Dimon, 63, recruited

Mr. Smith fromAmerican Ex-

pressCo. in 2007 to grow

Chase’s credit-card business.

Mr. Smith has guided Chase

through a major expansion.

The consumer bank now ac-

counts for just under half of

the bank’s revenue.

Last year,Wells Fargo&

Co.’s board approached Mr.

Smith about its open CEO job,

but he decided to stay put.

All told, Messrs. Pinto and

Smith are responsible for

about 80% of the bank’s busi-

ness. In their role as co-presi-

dents and co-chief operating

officers, they also manage

most of the bank’s day-to-day

operations. For their services,

they each took home $22.

million in 2019.

The two men have long

been considered potential suc-

cessors to Mr. Dimon, should

he retire in the near term. Mr.

Dimon has given no indication

he is ready to step down; ear-

lier this year, he said he had

about five years left in the job.

If Mr. Dimon sticks to that

timeline, the top contenders to

succeed him are Marianne

Lake, who runs JPMorgan’s

consumer-lending business,

and Chief Financial Officer

Jennifer Piepszak. JPMorgan

elevated the women, both 50,

last year in a shuffling that

signaled their status as possi-

ble successors.

Yet if Mr. Dimon’s sudden

illness accelerates his plans, it

could put the co-presidents in

contention to take over perma-

nently as co-CEOs.

Such arrangements are rare

but not unheard of, and they

don’t always work. Sales-

force.comco-CEO Keith Block

resigned last month after

sharing the post with founder

Marc Benioff for 18 months.

For now, JPMorgan still has

one CEO: Mr. Dimon. He was in

good condition Friday morn-

ing, according to a person fa-

miliar with the matter, well

enough to call into the office.

BYORLAMCCAFFREY
ANDDAVIDBENOIT

Meet Dimon’s Pinch Hitters at JPMorgan

Co-presidents Smith

and Pinto temporarily

take over after CEO

suffers a heart injury

Daniel Pinto, left, and Gordon Smith, right, were named co-presidents in January 2018. They each took home $22.5 million in 2019.

FROM LEFT: AL DRAGO/BLOOMBERG NEWS; EDUARDO MUNOZ/REUTERS

Steve Ells

founded

Chipotle in

1993 and

served as its

CEO until

2017.

ing to data from Equilar, a cor-

porate-governance data firm.

By the end of 2019, the

deadline for California boards

to include at least one female

director, the number of those

smaller-company boards with

no women had plummeted to

six. In percentage terms, the

drop is nearly as sharp as the

one among larger California

companies with all-male

boards, which fell over that pe-

riod to just one: energy-tech-

nology companyEnphase En-

ergyInc., which said it is in

the process of recruiting a fe-

male director.

That data suggests that the

mandate has pushed smaller

companies to diversify their

boardrooms faster than many

might have done otherwise.

“The California bill really su-

percharged that movement,”

Equilar research director

Courtney Yu said.

Pressure for boards to di-

versify has been mounting, and

not just in California.Goldman

Sachs GroupInc. Chief Execu-

tive David Solomon said that,

starting in July, it won’t take

companies public in the U.S. or

Europe if their boards don’t

have at least one female or

nonwhite director. Big inves-

tors such asBlackRockInc.

andState Street Global Advi-

sorshave also urged compa-

nies to add more women, in

some cases withholding proxy

votes if they don’t.

Yet smaller companies typi-

cally don’t get as much analyst

coverage or attention from in-

stitutional investors, said Hil-

lary Sale, a Georgetown Uni-

versity law professor and

chairwoman of the Direct-

Women Board Institute, a pro-

gram that aims to train law-

yers to be board directors.

While women made up

more than a quarter of all

board directors at the 1,

biggest publicly traded com-

panies at the end of 2019,

they held 19% of board seats

at smaller companies in the

Russell 3000, according to

Equilar. More than 200 com-

panies outside the top 1,

still had all-male boards, com-

pared with 14 within the top

1,000.

Smaller companies lag be-
hind the country’s biggest cor-
porations in bringing more
women onto their boards. In
California, though, that gap
has been closing since the
state began requiring public-
company boards to include fe-
male directors, according to
new data.
When the state passed the
mandate into law in September
2018, 91 California-based com-
panies in the Russell 3000—
the index that includes most
companies trading on major
U.S. stock exchanges—had all-
male boards. All but eight
were in the bottom 2,000 in
terms of market value, accord-

BYALLISONPRANG

California Law Improves Board Diversity

N.J.

Conn.

Md.

Del.

R.I.

D.C.

14%-19.9% 20%-24.9% 25%-29.9% 30%+

Texas

Calif.

Mont.

Ariz.

Nev.

Idaho

Colo.

N.M.

Utah

Ore.

Wyo.

Ill.

Kan.

Neb. Iowa

S.D.

Fla.

Minn.

Okla.

N.D.

Wis.

Ala. Ga.

Mo.

Ark.

La.

N.Y.

Pa.

Ind.

Tenn. N.C.

Ky.

Mich.

Va.

Miss.

Ohio

S.C.

Maine

W.Va.

Vt.

N.H.

Mass.

Wash.

Hawaii

Alaska

The State of Women on Boards

Thepercentageoffemaledirectorsatpubliclytraded

companiesvarieswidelyacrosstheU.S.

Share of female directors by state, as of end of 2019

Source: Equilar

Note: Figures are based on companies that belong to the Russell 3000 index, which includes

most companies trading on major U.S. stock exchanges; there are no Russell 3000 companies

based in Wyoming.

AlbertsonsCos. unveiled its

paperwork to go public after

spending more than a decade

under its private-equity

backer, Cerberus Capital

ManagementLP.

An IPO by the nation’s sec-

ond-largest supermarket oper-

ator, owner of chains including

Safewayand Vons, would be

one of the biggest debuts ex-

pected this year. Stocks and

other assets have dropped

sharply in recent days as the

new coronavirus epidemic

spreads, including in the U.S.

Boise, Idaho-based Albert-

sons said Friday that it hadn’t

determined the number of

shares or the price range for

its offering.

The Wall Street Journal re-

ported in January that Albert-

sons was preparing to go pub-

lic and that it had filed

confidentially with the Securi-

ties and Exchange Commis-

sion. Cerberus is looking to

cash out of an investment in

Albertsons it made nearly 15

years ago. The private-equity

firm bought about 650 Albert-

sons stores in 2006 and an-

other 900 stores in 2013. Two

years later, it combined Albert-

sons with Safeway Inc., creat-

ing a behemoth second in size

to Kroger Co. among super-

market operators. Walmart

Inc., which sells groceries

alongside many other goods, is

the nation’s top food seller.

After the Safeway merger,

Albertsons considered going

public in 2015 before scrap-

ping that effort due to lacklus-

ter performance of retail

stocks that year. Three years

later, Albertsons agreed to go

public by acquiring most of

Rite Aid Corp. in a $24 billion

merger. The two dropped the

deal after investors protested

pushed back on the plan.

Founded in 1939, Albertsons

operates 2,260 stores across

34 states and the District of

Columbia. The company gener-

ated more than $60.5 billion of

net sales in fiscal 2018, accord-

ing to filings with the SEC.

—Kimberly Chin

contributed to this article

BYJAEWONKANG

Albertsons Files Paperwork to Launch an IPO