Chase bank’s oldest employee is 86, and going strong

Forget 30 under 30, she's No. 1 under 90.

Chase has an employee who started working in the industry (and at a bank that is now part of Chase's nationwide web of consumer banks) before Jamie Dimon, the current CEO of JPMorgan Chase was even born.

Nella Bedford joined the bank that would become part of JPMorgan Chase in February 1956; the U.S. population was a not-so-whopping 169 million. Her path (which is still continuing) mirrors the tale of the banking industry as a whole, spanning decades as numerous institutions were ultimately merged up into one financial services monolith employing 240,000 people with a market cap of $241 billion.

People who take issue with the financial services industry's male-dominated composition today might be surprised at the workplace Bedford entered 60 years ago. When she started, she was the only woman working among a sea of male tellers at Fort Worth National Bank.