Morgan Stanley just named 171 new managing directors, the largest pool of promotions in recent years, a person familiar with the matter told Insider.
At the firm, MD is the most senior designation underneath the C-suite, and among the most elite designations on all of Wall Street. Members of the new MD class this year have an average tenure of 10 years with Morgan Stanley.
The 2021 class is substantially larger than last year's group of 130, which, amid cost cuts and layoffs, was among the smallest in years. The the bank promoted 145 managing directors in 2019.
Much of this year's class has grown within the ranks at the firm, with 49% having been hired into non-officer roles, this person said.
Here are a few key characteristics of the new group:
- Forty-eight percent of the members come from the firm's institutional securities group, which houses its investment banking and sales and trading operations.
- Nine percent were from the investment management division.
- Thirteen percent come from wealth management and banks.
- The remaining 30% came from the infrastructure group.
- Worldwide, 35% of the group is composed of female members, an increase from 25% in last year's class. Overall, that means that 22% of the firm's MD's are women.
- The number of MD's of color have grown, with the firm seeing a 58% YoY increase in the ethnic diversity of its 2021 MD class: Six percent are Black, 4% are Latinx, and 16% are Asian.
- In terms of regional dispersement, 65% of MD's are based in the Americas. Eighteen percent are in the EMEA region, and another 18% are in Asia.
- Forty-three percent of members of the class hold advanced degrees.
Morgan Stanley isn't the only firm to induct a crop of new promotions to its most senior designations in recent weeks.
In November, Goldman Sachs inducted a group of 60 people into its partner pool, which is the firm's most senior designation above the C-suite (at Goldman, partners are more senior than divisional managing directors).
And Citigroup followed in December, announcing 153 new managing directors for its latest MD class.