Wei Sun Christianson

Despite a tense year for U.S.-China relations, Christianson secured a significant breakthrough for Morgan Stanley, where she has been a longtime leader and champion of its Chinese business. In March, Chinese regulators granted Morgan Stanley and rival Goldman Sachs approval to take control of their local joint ventures, giving the U.S.-based banks a better foothold to expand their Asia-Pacific operations. As CEO of China and co-CEO of Asia-Pacific, where Morgan Stanley’s revenues (ex-Japan) are up 44% annually for the first nine months of 2020, Christianson also led her bank’s response to the early days of the pandemic. By September, more than 70% of Morgan Stanley’s China employees had returned to work in mainland China—without reporting a single coronavirus infection.

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