10 Things You Didn’t Know About Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman

Morgan Stanley is one of the biggest global names in investment banking, and it’s been that way since it was founded in 1935. The company has had its shares of ups and downs throughout the years, but it seems to be growing in a more positive direction in the last few years. That’s a big thanks mostly to its current leader and CEO, James Gorman, who has been CEO since 2010 and Chairman since 2012. None of us could even begin to imagine what it must be like to headline such a large firm, but here are 10 things about James Gorman that might give you an idea as to how he actually does it.

1. Melbourne

Morgan Stanley’s CEO is a transplant from down under. Gorman was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1958. If you think that he’s too young to be CEO of Morgan Stanley, we thought of the same. But it seems that he’s the best man for the job.

2. Education

Gorman attended a couple of schools to get his great education. When he was younger, Gorman attended Xavier College, a Roman Catholic boarding school for boys. Xavier College is located in Melbourne. For college, Gorman attended and received his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne, Australia’s second oldest university.

3. Career start

Gorman started his career in 1982 when he joined Phillips Fox and Masel, a law firm located in Melbourne. This is one of the only a couple of career jobs that he would ever procure in his home country because not too long after this job, he left Melbourne to head straight to the US.

4. Columbia

When Gorman got to the US, he went back to school to get his Masters degree. He was located in New York, and he was accepted into Columbia Business School. This was where Gorman finished his studies and received his Master of Business Administration degree. This degree was what propelled Gorman and his career towards the successful path that it stayed on from that point in his life to now.

5. Previous employment

Gorman worked for a few big name companies before he found work with Morgan Stanley. He held various executive positions at Merrill Lynch, even leading global private business clients from 2001 to 2005. Before Merrill Lynch, he worked as a senior partner of McKinsey & Company in Melbourne.

6. Morgan Stanley

Gorman started his relationship with the Morgan Stanley Company in 2006. He worked then as the President and Chief Operating Officer of the GWMG, or the Global Wealth Management Group. He assumed a couple of other positions within the company before he was named as CEO in 2010, which was actually announced the year before.

7. Compensation

We could only imagine what a CEO of an investment-banking firm must be making, but Gorman’s stats give us a few good ideas. When he was initially hired as Chairman and CEO, Gorman’s reported salary was $9.75 million. That was in 2012. Just a year later in 2013, Gorman’s salary almost doubled to $18 million. That was about five years ago. In 2017, his reported salary was $27 million.

8. Board memberships

Gorman serves on several advisory boards and committees in the US. These include the Federal Advisory Council to the US Federal Reserve Board, the Board of Overseers of the Columbia Business School, the Financial Services Forum, the Boards of the Partnerships for New York City, and a few others.

9. All-star MVP

Gorman is often praised for the job he’s doing as CEO of Morgan Stanley. But in an annual meeting this year, Gorman probably received one of the best compliments he’s gotten yet, and it came from one of the commentators from CNBC. The said commentator compared Gorman to a basketball star. He said that Gorman is easily the Lebron James of Wall Street. An even better compliment came from one of Gorman’s employees, stating that he was glad to be on Gorman’s team.

10. Clear vision

Gorman has always had a vision for Morgan Stanley that he’s slowly achieving and finding into completion throughout his leadership. He has taken Morgan Stanley from flying too close to the sun into a safer place, and he knows exactly where he wants to take the company. Gorman’s leadership has been admired by many in the financial industry, and he probably still has a few more years to go.