Carla Harris

Carla Harris is Managing Director and Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley, responsible for increasing client connectivity and penetration to enhance revenue generation across the firm.

Carla sits on a number of financial and philanthropic boards, and currently chairs the National Women’s Business Council. She is actively involved in her community and heartily believes that “we are blessed so that we can be a blessing to someone else.”

Carla previously headed the company’s Emerging Manager Platform—the equity capital markets effort for the consumer and retail industries—and was responsible for Equity Private Placements. Carla has extensive industry experience in the technology, media, retail, telecommunications, transportation, industrial, and healthcare sectors.

For more than a decade, Carla 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 transaction in U.S. history. Carla 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 Magazine’s “Top 75 Most Powerful Women in Business“ (2010) and “Top 75 African Americans on Wall Street” (2006 – 2011), 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” by the Harvard Black Men’s Forum in 2004 and by the Yale Black Men’s Forum in 2011.

Carla began her career with Morgan Stanley in the Mergers & Acquisitions department in 1987. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Carla received an MBA from Harvard Business School, Second Year Honors, 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, Jacksonville University, Simmons College, the College of New Rochelle, St. Thomas Aquinas College, and Fisk University respectively.

She is the immediate past Chair of the Board 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, Mt. Sinai and St. Vincent’s Hospitals, Xavier University, and is an active member of the St. Charles Gospelites of the St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church and the Mark Howell Singers. Carla 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 awards.

In her other life, Carla is a singer and has released her third gospel CD Unceasing Praise (2011), her second CD, a gospel album titled, Joy Is Waiting, was featured on BET Nightly News while her first CD entitled, Carla’s First Christmas, was a bestseller on Amazon.com in New York and in record stores, and was featured on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in his “American Dream” segment. She is also the author of the newly released book, Strategize to Win, and Expect to Win.

Carla is the host of Webby Award-Winning Podcast, Access & Opportunity with Carla Harris.

Carla’s Pearls: Tools for Maximizing Your Success

Carla Harris speaks about the proven strategies that have helped her succeed and thrive on Wall Street. This presentation shines the light on her self-described “Pearls” of wisdom. She helps audiences maximize success from where they currently find themselves, as well as increasing the odds of reaching the position they aspire to. Discussion points include the importance—and the power—of perceptions in the workplace, key relationships needed to ensure your success, and the role authenticity plays in being a powerful leader.

Leadership: Currency, Change, and Creating a Powerful Presence

Carla Harris is a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, that’s true. But she is also a gospel recording artist, and author of two books: Expect to Win: 10 Proven Strategies to Surviving in the Workplace and Strategize to Win: The New Way to Start Out, Step Up, or Start Over in Your Career.