Managing Director at Morgan Stanley Says “Dare to be Different”

Morgan Stanley Managing Director Tracy Castle-Newman challenged IE Business School students and alumni to “dare to be different” in a free-ranging session, where the banker opened up about the power of a strong network, how she started in finance and obstacles she faced in a male-dominant industry.

IE’s Finance and Capital Markets Club and the Women in Business Club invited Castle-Newman to the LinkedIn Live event on the IE Business School page, with the support of IE Campus Life. You can still watch the event here.

“Dare to be different, it takes personal risk when you are the only person in the room that looks like you, or if you try to do something new,” Castle-Newman said.

“With every risk there is a reward, and the only way you’re going to do that is if you differentiate yourself.”
Tracy Castle-Newman, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley

Castle-Newman has successfully launched diversity initiatives aimed at female bankers, including both the Women’s in Business Alliance and the Women’s Investment Roundtable.

“Tracy was able to alter stereotypical women initiatives at the firm and restructure them towards bringing content to women out of their natural networks to achieve personal success,” said the current president of the IE Finance and Capital Markets Club, Beatriz de los Heros.

Castle-Newman said networking in the finance industry was essential.

“If you throw a rock in a pond, you have the inner circle, and then the circles get bigger and bigger and bigger. It’s the same way with your network,” she said. “You start to expand that network to those that are adjacent to what you do. It starts to broaden your impact, and then you expand your network to those that may not be adjacent. But if you connect, you may collaborate and have a broader impact over time.”

As a woman in the finance world, the Morgan Stanley executive talked about the extra effort she had to invest to be taken seriously in her work environment.

“You’re constantly having to protect your brand and make sure that people understand what your brand is.”

For this reason, she said networking and women’s initiatives like Women in Business Alliance and the Women’s Investment Roundtable are important.

Essentially, these groups are “bringing content to women that they don’t get in their natural networks.”

Attendees energetically participated, asking questions like how to differentiate yourself from co-workers in the workplace.

“If you think differently and you bring a different perspective, you’re going to stand out.”