Carla Harris is a Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley. She was most recently a Vice Chairman responsible for increasing client connectivity and penetration to enhance revenue generation across the firm. She was the founder and creator of the award winning, Multicultural Innovation Lab at Morgan Stanley, and the award winning podcast, Access and Opportunity. 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. In her 30+ year career, Ms. Harris has had extensive industry experiences in the technology, media, retail, telecommunications, transportation, industrial, and healthcare sectors. In August 2013, Carla Harris was appointed by President Barack Obama to chair the National Women’s Business Council.
For more than a decade, Ms. 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 named to Fortune Magazine’s list of “The 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America”, Fortune’s Most Influential List, U. S. Bankers Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance (2009, 2010, 2011), Black Enterprise’s Top 75 Most Powerful Women in Business (2017), and “Top 75 African Americans on Wall Street”, and to Essence Magazine’s list of “The 50 Women Who are Shaping the World”, Ebony’s list of the Power 100 and “15 Corporate Women at the Top” and was named “Woman of the Year 2004” by the Harvard Black Men’s Forum and in 2011 by the Yale Black Men’s Forum.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Carla received an MBA, Second Year Honors from Harvard Business School and an AB in economics from Harvard University, Magna Cum Laude. Carla has also received Honorary Doctorates of Laws, Humanities and Business from Marymount Manhattan College, Bloomfield College, Converse College, Jacksonville University, Simmons College, the College of New Rochelle, St. Thomas Aquinas College, Babson College and Fisk University, Wake Forest University and Felician University respectively. Carla Harris is actively involved in her community and heartily believes that “we are blessed so that we can be a blessing to someone else.”
She is the past Chair of the Board of the Morgan Stanley Foundation and of The Executive Leadership Council, and sits on the boards of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), The Sesame Workshop, Mother Cabrini Health Foundation and is an active member of the St. Charles Gospelites of the St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church. She was a member of the board of overseers of Harvard University and is a member of the board of directors of the Walmart Corporation, Cummins Corporation and MetLife. Ms. Harris was co-chair of the National Social Action Commission of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. She has been named to the New Jersey Hall of Fame (2015) and 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 awards. In her other life, Carla is a singer who has sold out concerts at Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theatre, and released 4 Gospel CDs:“O This is Christmas” (2021) “Unceasing Praise” (2011), “Joy Is Waiting”(2005), and her first CD entitled, “Carla’s First Christmas”(2000), was a bestseller on Amazon.com in New York and was featured on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in his “American Dream” segment. She is also an internationally renowned public speaker. She was named one of the top 50 speakers in the world by Real Leaders Magazine (2023) and one of the Top 40 female Speakers (2020). She is the author of the books, Strategize to Win (2014), Expect to Win (2009) (Hudson Press) and of Lead To Win (2022)
