Carla Harris is a Managing Director and heads the Emerging Manager Platform at Morgan Stanley Investment Management where she also provides investment advice to corporations, public pension plans, foundations and endowments. She formerly headed 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.
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 transaction 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 Non-Bank Finance (2009), Black Enterprise’s Top 75 Most Powerful Women in Business (2010), Black Enterprise Magazine’s “Top 50 African Americans on Wall Street,” 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.
Ms. Harris began her career with Morgan Stanley in the Mergers & Acquisitions department in 1987. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Carla received from Harvard Business School an MBA, Second Year Honors and an AB in economics from Harvard University, Magna Cum Laude. Ms. Harris has also received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Marymount Manhattan College. 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.” As a result, Ms. Harris has funded the Carla Harris Scholarship at Harvard University and at Bishop Kenny High School in Jacksonville, Florida.
She is the 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., The Apollo Theatre Foundation, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Xavier University, and is an active member of the St. Charles Gospelites of the St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church and the Mark Howell Singers. Ms. Harris is also on the board of the Maya Angelou Research for Minority Health and was a member of the Board of Overseers’ Committee on University Resources, Harvard University. Ms. Harris is a member of the National Social Action Commission of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. 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 Bill and Camille Cosby Award given by Associated Black Charities, the NASP New York’s Wall Street Hall of Fame Award, Blazing New Trails Award from the Robert A. Toigo Foundation and many other awards. In her other life, Ms. Harris is a singer and has released her second CD, a gospel album entitled, “Joy Is Waiting,” which has been featured on BET Nightly News. 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, Expect to Win (Hudson Press).