Morgan Stanley CEO acknowledges diversity efforts have been ‘slow’

The CEO of Morgan Stanley on Wednesday will testify that efforts to increase representation for women and minorities at the highest levels of his company are moving slower than expected.

Reuters reported that prepared testimony from CEO James Gorman will admit that the company “should do better” on diversity hiring initiatives while adding that he was requiring managers at Morgan Stanley to develop a “succession plan” for their position that involves the creation of a “diverse candidate pipeline” for recruiting.

“I acknowledge that progress in this area has been slow for us and we can and should do better,” Gorman will testify, according to Reuters. “The events of 2020 focused all of us in a way we had not been before and this was the ultimate call to action to make meaningful change.”

“Every senior manager is required to have a succession plan for his or her senior team members, and part of that plan must include developing a diverse candidate pipeline,” Gorman will say.

His prepared testimony comes ahead of Wednesday’s joint hearing of the Senate and House Financial Services committees, before which Morgan Stanley and other top banks are set to testify.

The bank CEOs are likely to face questions over Wednesday and Thursday about how COVID-19 impacted their customers, and how their institutions responded, among other issues including their efforts to fight climate change and address systemic racism in the finance sector.