Pop quiz: How many Columbia Business School (CBS) alumni work for Morgan Stanley? Graduates of the New York City business school make up 245 of the investment banking giant’s current employees, CBS reports, including Chairman and CEO James Gorman ’87 and Brad Evans ‘70, managing director and vice president of the firm’s investment banking department. Gorman and Evans, together with CBS Professor Meyer Feldberg ’65, also are members of the school’s Board of Overseers.
Ties between the school and the firm grew even stronger earlier this spring when Morgan Stanley donated $5.25 million toward CBS’s new Manhattanville facilities. The “transformative gift,” as a press release last week called it, will create two Morgan Stanley Suites, one in each of the new buildings now under construction. It represents the largest corporate contribution to the Manhattanville Campus to date.
What’s a suite, you ask? In the case of the Morgan Stanley Suites, each will include a 74-seat classroom with multiple adjoining study rooms.
The gift was first announced at an April 15th event hosted at Morgan Stanley’s headquarters by a slew of Morgan Stanley top executives who are also CBS alumni, including Michael Boublik ’90, chairman of Mergers and Acquisitions, Daniel Simkowitz ’91, co-head, Global Capital Markets, and Nelson Walsh ’90, vice chairman, Investment Banking. Professor Feldberg, who is a senior advisor at the firm and also served as former CBS dean, gave special remarks.
“If you had to describe, in one word, a strategic plus for a school like Columbia, it’s connections,” Dean Glenn Hubbard said during the event. “We have more connections with the world around us than any of our peers—such as with firms like Morgan Stanley—and we deliver that network regularly in our classrooms, in our research centers, and in the experiences of students, faculty, alumni, and staff. This is key for us.”
Hubbard praised Morgan Stanley and the friends and alumni responsible for the generous gift, which will help the school in its mission to create learning spaces that encourage community, collaboration and increased communication.
The Morgan Stanley Suites are just some of many flexible spaces planned for the new Manhattanville facilities. Comprising 468,000 square feet, the new campus will more than double CBS’s current space.
Learn more about Morgan Stanley’s $5.25 million gift to CBS.
