Outgoing Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman gave himself an A- grade for his time at the investment bank.
“We did well, objectively. The stock has basically tripled,” the 65-year-old executive told in a wide-ranging interview with the Financial Times published over the weekend.
The 65-year-old justified the grade by saying it would be immodest to give himself a higher grade but “false modesty” to mark himself lower.
The investment bank’s co-president Ted Pick will succeed Gorman as Morgan Stanley’s CEO on January 1, 2024.
Under Gorman, who became CEO in 2010, Morgan Stanley’s revenues more than doubled to $66 billion in 2022.
Most recently, Morgan Stanley netted $109.6 billion in new client assets in the first quarter of 2023 — almost a fifth of which came from advisors and clients of regional lenders amid the banking crisis earlier this year. In the same interview with FT, Gorman blamed mismanagement for the bank failures.
Despite his legacy of success in growing Morgan Stanley over the course of more than a decade, Gorman said he’s done with being CEO.
“I do not want to be CEO anymore. I’ve loved it. I’ve loved all of it. I’ve done it for 14 years, that’s enough,” Gorman told the FT.
Gorman will join Walt Disney’s board next year and intends to teach more in his role as the chair of the Columbia Business School. He will also leave his position as Morgan Stanley’s executive chairman by the end of 2024.
“It’s a big world. I didn’t spend my whole life trying to be a CEO of a bank,” Gorman added to FT. “So I’m not going to spend the rest of my life continuing to be CEO of a bank.”
