NEW YORK – 100 Women in Finance (“100WF”) today announces its New York Virtual Gala to be hosted on Wednesday, November 11th, honoring Carla Harris and Alice Vilma, co-heads of Morgan Stanley’s Multicultural Innovation Lab, with 100WF’s 2020 Effecting Change Award.
In a year that will likely be remembered as much for agile innovation as for pandemic-related disruption, 100WF will produce its annual New York fundraiser as a virtual event. As in each of the past 19 years, 100WF will assemble a large audience of finance industry executives and investment professionals to honor those who have created opportunity for women in the industry and who have raised the standard of professional excellence for all. The event celebrates these achievements and raises funds for 100WF’s Impact work, which aims for greater representation of women in investment and executive roles by forging pathways into the finance industry for pre-career women from diverse backgrounds.
Carla Harris (right) and Alice Vilma (left) will jointly receive 100 Women in Finance’s
2020 Effecting Change Award on November 11, 2020.
The year is further landmarked by the global movement toward greater social equality, including within the financial services industry. At the event, 100WF will recognize Ms. Carla Harris and Ms. Alice Vilma, jointly, with 100 Women’s Effecting Change Award. Ms. Harris and Ms. Vilma co-head the Morgan Stanley Multicultural Innovation Lab, an accelerator of early stage technology and technology-enabled startups led by women and multicultural founders, hosted within Morgan Stanley. Ms. Harris is Vice Chairman, Managing Director and Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley. She is responsible for increasing client connectivity and penetration to enhance revenue generation across the firm. Ms. Vilma is a Managing Director in Morgan Stanley’s Multicultural Client Strategy Group where she strengthens connections to the multicultural business community by identifying, developing and executing commercial opportunities with corporate, government, institutional and individual clients.
Remarking on 100WF’s recognition of Ms. Harris’s and Ms. Vilma’s leadership of the Morgan Stanley Multicultural Innovation Lab, Tom Nides, Managing Director and Vice Chairman of Morgan Stanley said, “I am so proud of Carla and Alice for leading our Multicultural Innovation Lab with the mission of increasing access to capital for women and multicultural entrepreneurs. This award is well-deserved, and we are grateful to 100WF for recognizing their important work to help drive positive economic outcomes and decrease the funding gap for diverse founders.”
100WF’s CEO Amanda Pullinger further commented, “We are grateful for the opportunity to raise awareness of Morgan Stanley’s Multicultural Innovation Lab across our global community of corporate supporters and members, and to shine a deeply deserved spotlight on Carla and Alice for their work to pioneer and propel the initiative. We expect their impact will be an enormous source of inspiration to executives at other finance industry companies as they consider how they might help move the needle toward greater opportunity for female and multicultural entrepreneurs.”
Beneficiary: The 100 Women Impact Collective
Event proceeds will support the 100 Women Impact Collective, a 100WF-designed initiative to achieve accelerated progress toward the organization’s Vision for 30×40, in which women will perform 30% of investment and executive team roles in the finance industry by 2040. The 100 Women Impact Collective is a successor effort to 100WF’s Investing in the Next Generation initiatives and affords greater focus and funding for program partners that create pathways into the finance industry for pre-career female students of diverse backgrounds, globally.
Managed by 100WF, the 100 Women Impact Collective is a collaborative effort among the global finance industry, non-profit partner organizations and social enterprises to demystify careers in the finance industry, to render these careers more appealing and accessible to young women, and to prepare female students with necessary skills and inspiration to pursue the opportunities via relationships with relevant industry role models.
Fundraiser Features and Sponsorship Opportunities
The event will include the hallmark features of 100WF’s past New York fundraisers, including broadcast remarks from honorees and special messages from sponsors, organizers and 100WF leaders, which will be presented digitally via a viewing platform.
The event’s virtual nature will allow 100WF’s 15,000-member global community to participate as never before. According to Alexandra Burban, the returning chair of 100WF’s New York Gala Committee, “The silver lining of 2020 is that by overcoming the obvious obstacles in hosting a fundraiser amid a pandemic, we’ve found an opportunity to reach a larger audience with our mission and message. We are excited that our format will make the event relevant to global sponsors and accessible by 100WF’s worldwide membership.”
Inquiries about event sponsorship opportunities are welcome here.
To make a donation to 100WF’s Impact efforts, please act here.
Additional details about 100WF’s 2020 New York fundraiser will be announced in the near future, including an announcement of the 2020 North American Industry Leadership Award recipient. Please refer to 100WF’s website for updated information.
ABOUT 100 Women in Finance
100 Women in Finance’s more than 15,000 members strengthen the global finance industry by empowering women to achieve their professional potential at each career stage. Its members inspire, equip and advocate for a new generation of industry leadership, in which women and men serve as investment professionals and executives, equal in achievement and impact. Through Education, Peer Engagement and Impact, the organization furthers the progress of women who have chosen finance as a career and enables their positive influence over pre-career young women.