Carla Harris is a Vice Chairman, Global Wealth Management, Managing Director, and Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley. She is responsible for increasing client connectivity and penetration to enhance revenue generation across the firm. She formerly headed the Emerging Manager Platform, the equity capital markets effort for the consumer and retail industries, and was responsible for Equity Private Placements. Ms. Harris has extensive industry experiences in the technology, media, retail, telecommunications, transportation, industrial, and healthcare sectors. In August 2013, Harris was appointed by President Barack Obama to chair the National Women’s Business Council.

For more than a decade, Harris was a senior member of the equity syndicate desk and executed such transactions as initial public offerings for UPS, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Ariba, Redback, the General Motors sub-IPO of Delphi Automotive, and the $3.2 billion common stock transaction for Immunex Corporation, one of the largest biotechnology common stock transactions in U.S. history. Ms. Harris was recently named to Fortune magazine’s list of “The 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America,” U. S. Bankers Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance (2009, 2010, 2011), Black Enterprise’s Top 75 Most Powerful Women in Business (2010), to Black Enterprise magazine’s “Top 75 African Americans on Wall Street” (2006 – 2011), to Essence magazine’s list of “The 50 Women Who are Shaping the World,” Ebony’s list of “15 Corporate Women at the Top,” and was named “Woman of the Year 2004” by the Harvard Black Men’s Forum.

Harris began her career with Morgan Stanley in the Mergers & Acquisitions department in 1987. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, she received an MBA from Harvard Business School with second year honors and an AB in economics from Harvard University, magna cum laude. Harris has also received honorary degrees from Marymount Manhattan College, Bloomfield College, Jacksonville University, Simmons College, and the College of New Rochelle. Harris serves as chair of the Morgan Stanley Foundation and sits on the boards of the Food Bank for NYC, The Executive Leadership Council, The Toigo Foundation, Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), A Better Chance, Inc., The Apollo Theatre Foundation, Mt. Sinai Hospital, and Xavier University. She is also an active member of the St. Charles Gospelites of the St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church and the Mark Howell Singers. Ms. Harris is co-chair of the National Social Action Commission of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and was a member of the Board of Overseers’ Committee on University Resources, Harvard University. She has received the Bert King Award from the Harvard Business School African American Alumni Association, the 2005 Women’s Professional Achievement Award from Harvard University, the Pierre Toussaint Medallion from the Office of Black Ministry of the Archdiocese of New York, the Women of Power Award given by the National Urban League, the Women of Influence Award from The Links, Incorporated, and many other honors. In her other life, Harris is a singer, and released her third gospel CD, Unceasing Praise, in 2011. Her second gospel CD, Joy Is Waiting, was featured on BET Nightly News, while her debut CD, Carla’s First Christmas, was featured on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in his “American Dream” segment. She is the author of Expect to Win: 10 Proven Strategies for Thriving in the Workplace (Hudson Press).