Senior JPMorgan deal maker Elliott to retire in June

The lobby of JPMorgan headquarters is photographed through its front doors in New York May 11, 2012. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co's global chairman of investment banking and veteran deal maker James Elliott will retire in June, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. Elliott, who has worked on several prominent deals during his 35-year career, will leave the firm to spend more time on his ranch in Texas, Jeff Urwin, JPMorgan's co-head of global banking wrote in the memo obtained from JPMorgan by Reuters. Elliot joined JPMorgan in 1997 as a senior member of the mergers and acquisitions department. "Jimmy has been instrumental in building our M&A franchise into the world class entity it is today," Urwin wrote. Elliot had a lead role in Exxon's $86 billion merger with Mobil and was also involved in Sanofi's $21 billion acquisition of Genzyme. (Reporting by Anjalirao Koppala and Aman Shah in Bangalore; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)