Matt Zames, who previously served as chief operating officer at JPMorgan Chase, has been appointed to an unpaid advisory role at the Social Security Administration. Zames will work with Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano, his former colleague at JPMorgan, to advance modernization efforts at the agency. He is scheduled to begin work Monday at SSA headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland.
Zames built a prominent career in finance and restructuring. At JPMorgan, he helped resolve the bank’s $6 billion trading loss known as the “London Whale” incident and subsequently led technology and cost-reduction initiatives. He served as the bank’s chief operating officer for approximately five years before departing in 2017. Following his time at JPMorgan, Zames became president of private equity firm Cerberus, where he managed technology investments and assisted in restructuring the firm’s Deutsche Bank holdings. He left Cerberus in 2021 to establish an advisory and restructuring consulting firm.
Zames has also served on advisory groups for the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve focusing on debt markets. In his new role, he will address a significant challenge facing the Social Security Administration: the agency operates on legacy technology systems that require updating. Beyond technological concerns, the SSA faces a critical funding challenge, with projections indicating its retirement trust fund will be depleted within less than a decade if current conditions persist. Such depletion could necessitate reductions in benefits for millions of Americans.
As a special government employee, Zames is authorized to hold this position for up to 130 days, though this timeframe can be extended over a longer duration given his part-time status.
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