Dimon's father joins Bear Stearns advisory unit

By Elinor Comlay and Joe Rauch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon's desire to expand his bank's brokerage unit has resulted in an unexpected new hire -- his dad.

Theodore "Ted" Dimon, 78, left Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management unit on Friday for his son's company, joining JPMorgan's Bear Stearns Private Client Services group as one of a six-member wealth advisory team, the bank said.

Ted Dimon, who began his career in 1953 working for his father as a stockbroker, will report to Michael Lee, who heads the group's New York office. Bear Stearns' private client business has 380 employees currently.

Its staff has expanded by 17 percent this year and the younger Dimon said at an industry meeting earlier this year that he wanted to hire up to 1,000 financial advisers to bolster its ranks.

"Our strategy there is to go to 1,000 of the top, top, top," he said at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association annual meeting in October, adding: "So if you're really, really good, call JPMorgan up and we'll be happy to hire you."

JPMorgan is also planning to add two new offices next year, the first office expansion in 15 years for the Bear Stearns Private Client business. The firm is scouting locations in Texas and the mid-Atlantic, to bolster seven existing U.S. offices.

The firm's governance committee reviewed Ted Dimon's hire, a person familiar with the hire said.