Gorman’s Humble Steps Made Morgan Stanley Great
The CEO’s masterstroke was to ditch Wall Street’s hubris and aim for a methodical transformation.
Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman has transformed the lender.
Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images
James Gorman’s big strength when he became Morgan Stanley’s chief executive officer was in setting small targets. More than a decade later, as he prepares to step back from the role, it is the bank’s steady progress from modest early steps that has made Morgan Stanley an investor favorite.
The next CEO will inherit an institution that has been completely transformed since Australian-born Gorman took the reins in 2010 amid the smoldering ashes of the great financial crisis of 2008. While other banks in the US and Europe hoped for a quick return to their former glories, Gorman took a different tack. He looked to build Morgan Stanley’s vast retail brokerage into a big and steady wealth manager rather than relying on volatile deals and transactions in stock and bond markets.