If you ever needed anymore proof of it doesn't matter how much you know, it only matters who you know, look no further than the recent announcement that CJ Tolkin or Conor Tolkin as Head of Consumer and Small Business Banking Finance. The son-in-law of the great Jamie Dimon, Charlie's long admired mentor, just got a major boost to his career, now reporting directly to CFO, Mike Santomassimo. Pretty amazing when for a guy that has at most 10 years of total experience in his professional career (graduated from Duke in 2011 with his undergraduate degree) but more likely closer to 8 years considering he went for his MBA at Harvard from 2016 to 2018 (highly doubtful he worked during those 2 years).
To analyze this further, currently there are 2 open positions listed under "Executives". One for Head of Underwriting and Credit Risk, which would be a high ranking position but not in the same class as Mr. Tolkin's, Head of Consumer and Small Business Banking finance position. The required qualifications for the Head of Underwriting and Credit Risk are 15+ years of lending experience and 10+ years of management experience. Now, keep in mind, this position is probably slightly lower in the high hierarchy of positions when compared to Mr. Tolkin's new position, yet Mr. Tolkin was somehow found to have enough experience to qualify for such a position.
At this point, it is safe to say, that if you were here under the old management, you are basically stuck in your position. There hasn't been one person within the company that has been given the opportunity for any of these executive level positions under Scharf and this recent announcement clearly shows it has nothing to do with your talent, skills, or years of experience. If you are someone with any ambition of moving up in the company, you are going to have to leave and start over. Management has made this clear as day. There is absolutely no saving face or coming back from this decision. It is outright sad that people that are overqualified for positions can't even get an interview, yet someone who is very clearly underqualified gets appointed to these executive positions without even a formal hiring process conducted for the position.
I'm sure some question along these lines will be asked for Charlie's town hall and it will get passed over, even if every single person in the company would only submit this question. Just remember, management only is targeting the "privileged" for any type of executive position.