Carla A. Harris

Carla A. Harris has been a force on Wall Street for over 20 years. She is currently a Managing Director in the Institutional Advisory Group at Morgan Stanley Investment Management providing investment advice to corporations, public pension plans, foundations and endowments. She also heads the Emerging Managers Platform. She formerly headed the equity capital markets effort for the Consumer and Retail industries and was responsible for raising private equity capital for emerging companies in all industries as the head of equity private placements. Carla has extensive industry experiences in the consumer, technology, media, retail, telecommunications, transportation, industrial, and healthcare sectors.

For more than a decade, Ms. Harris was a senior member of the equity syndicate desk and executed such transactions as initial public offerings for UPS, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Ariba, Digitas, Redback, the General Motors sub-IPO of Delphi Automotive Donna Karan, and others. As a Wall Street banker, Ms. Harris has accomplished much being named to Fortune Magazine’s list of “The Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America”, and to Fortune’s “The Most Influential List” 2005, to Black Enterprise Magazine’s “Top 50 African Americans on Wall Street”, to Essence Magazine’s list of “The 50 Women Who are Shaping the World”, Ebony’s list of “15 Corporate Women at the Top”, The Network Journal’s 2005 list of “25 Most Outstanding Women in Business” and was named “Woman of the Year 2004″ by the Harvard University Black Men’s Forum.

Carla Ann Harris was born in Port Arthur, Texas and hails from Jacksonville, Florida where she attended St. Pius V School as an elementary and junior high school student, before heading to Bishop Kenny High School where she graduated summa cum laude. Carla left Jacksonville, Florida for the hallowed halls of Harvard University where she graduated magna cum laude in Economics. After her undergraduate career, Carla attended and graduated from the Harvard Business School with a Masters of Business Administration.

About the Singer
In addition to being an accomplished business professional Carla Ann Harris is an exciting, accomplished singer that has delighted audiences around the world with her soulful renditions of new and old gospel favorites. She has performed two sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall to benefit St. Charles Catholic School in Harlem, New York and Bishop Kenny High School in Jacksonville, Florida. When Carla sings it touches the very depths of your soul and the message that was intended is delivered.

Carla began singing at age 9. She quickly migrated towards choral music and began singing in gospel choirs at age 13. She loved singing so much that she sang in both Catholic and Baptist choirs often engaging in two separate church services on Sundays. While at Harvard, Carla continued to pursue her music, singing with the world renowned Radcliffe Chorale Society, the oldest women’s singing group at Harvard and in her own band called Rhythm Company. While at HBS, she sang with the Late Night Band, a band comprised of HBS students that played a variety of musical genres including, rhythm and blues, pop, and rock. While at HBS, Carla also had her Off-off Broadway debut at Symphony Space in the HBS Show, called “Top Pay”. In 2000, Carla released her debut album, Carla’s First Christmas and in 2005, she released her second CD, Joy is Waiting and directed all of the proceeds to St. Charles Borromeo School in Harlem, New York and Bishop Kenny High School in Jacksonville. Carla’s First Christmas and Carla were featured on The Evening News with Dan Rather and was one of the top selling albums on Amazon.com in New York City. Both Carla’s First Christmas and Joy is Waiting can be purchased on Amazon.com and CDbaby.com.

While her vocation is deal making, Carla’s avocation is singing and her passion lies in helping others. Carla believes that “we are blessed, so that we can be a blessing to others” and she gives her time and financial resources to several non-profit organizations in New York City and has established scholarship funds at her alma maters, Harvard University and Bishop Kenny High School in Jacksonville, Florida. Carla is a member of the National Social Action Commission of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated and the Brooklyn Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Carla sits on the boards of the Food Bank of New York City, the Morgan Stanley Foundation, the Executive Leadership Council, Mount Sinai Hospital, A Better Chance, Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, the Apollo Theatre Foundation, The Manhattan Council of the Boy Scout of America,The Maya Angelou Research Center for Minority Health and Union Theological Seminary. She is an avid member of the St. Charles Gospelites of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, the Mark Howell Singers, the Women’s Forum and the Economic Club of New York.

Carla A. Harris has received numerous awards and accolades including, Ebony Magazine’s Corporate Leadership Award, Women’s Professional Achievement Award from Harvard University, the Pierre Toussaint Medallion from the Office of Black Ministry of the Archdiocese of New York, The HBS Club of New York’s Leadership Award, Outstanding Women’s Award given by the Greater Manhattan Chapter of the Links Incorporated, the Women of Power Award given by the National Urban League, the Lewis Rudin Leadership Award from the Coro Foundation, Blazing New Trails Award from the Robert A. Toigo Foundation, the Bethune Award from the National Council of Negro Women, the Ron Brown Trailblazer Award from St. John’s University School of Law, the Bert King Award from the Harvard Business School African American Alumni Association, the Bill and Camille Cosby Award given by Associated Black Charities, the Women of Distinction Award from the Girl Scouts of Greater Essex and Hudson Counties, and the Frederick Douglass Award given by the New York Urban League to name a few.

Source: http://carlaspearls.com