Morgan Stanley Names 153 Managing Directors In Annual Promotions

By Michael J. Moore, Bloomberg

Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley, owner of the world’s largest brokerage, promoted 153 employees to the title of managing director, an increase from 144 a year earlier.

About 64 percent of those promoted work in the U.S., up from 50 percent last year, while 22 percent are based in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and 14 percent in Asia, according to Wesley McDade, a spokesman for the New York-based bank. Almost half of the new class works in the investment banking and trading division, McDade said.

Morgan Stanley has cut more than 5,400 jobs since the end of 2011 as part of Chief Executive Officer James Gorman's plan to pare $1.6 billion in expenses. Last year, the bank bought the rest of a brokerage joint venture with Citigroup Inc. and reduced capital to its fixed-income trading business in an effort to double return on equity.

Forty-one of the new managing directors, or 27 percent of the class, are women. That’s the highest proportion ever, McDade said. The total number of managing directors is down from the classes of 2011, when 210 employees were given the title, and 2010, when 232 people were promoted.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the latest promotions yesterday.

--Editors: Peter Eichenbaum, Dan Kraut.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael J. Moore in New York at mmoore55@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Eichenbaum at peichenbaum@bloomberg.net