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• Morgan Stanley has promoted a new class of managing directors — the bank's highest rank.
• This year, 155 employees were promoted, down from 184 last year.
• Like new CEO Ted Pick, nearly half the group joined the bank as a junior employee.

Morgan Stanley has a fresh CEO to start 2024, and now it's got a fresh crop of managing directors as well.

The investment bank on Wednesday announced details internally about its newest class of MDs, the firm's highest rank outside the C-suite. The firm elevated 155 employees to the coveted title, according to a person briefed on the announcement, a prestigious accomplishment that is often the reward of more than a decade of intense dedication and strong performance.

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The bank has yet to release the names of the employees it promoted to MD, which it usually announces the following week.

The average MD has been at the bank for 11 years and more than a third have advanced degrees, according to the announcement. Many of the promotes joined Morgan Stanley as junior employees, as did CEO Ted Pick, who joined the firm as an analyst in 1990 and this month took the reins from James Gorman. Nearly half of this year's group joined the firm below the VP level.

The 2024 class is smaller than last year's group of 184 and the smallest in five years. The bank promoted 199 in 2022, a year of blowout performance across Wall Street.

In 2021, the firm promoted 171 MDs, up from the 130 in 2020.

Here's the breakdown of the new class:

• By division:

  • 44% come from the Institutional Securities Group, the investment banking unit

  • 15% from Investment Management, which provides investments advice and products to institutional investors

  • 12% from Wealth Management

  • 29% from Infrastructure, the technology and operations professionals

• 37% of the 2023 MD class are women, bringing the total representation of woman MDs to 26%.

• In the US, 6% are Black, 7% are Hispanic, and 15% are Asian.

• The new MDs span 11 countries, with 58% based in the Americas, 22% in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and 20% in Asia.

Morgan Stanley started communicating year-end comp to employees on Wednesday and is set to report earnings on Tuesday the 16th.

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