Valisha Graves has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry and has spent the past 13 years translating complex financial and data intensive problems into user-centric fintech applications. She is a product evangelist who promotes the need for the consumerization of IT – translation – making enterprise software as easy to use as an iPhone.

At present, she is an Executive Director on the Strategic Client Services Product Development team responsible for the One Client data initiative, in partnership with the Advisory, Goals Based Planning and Investment Products within Wealth Management.

During her tenure at Morgan Stanley, she has held a variety of technology roles as a Fintech Product Manager for Equity Research, Investment Banking, Global Capital Markets and Enterprise Computing.

She joined Morgan Stanley on the ModelWare team in 2005 with primary responsibility for the definition, development and delivery of several financial applications – Valuation, Supply Chain, Profitability Maps, LBO and Cross Asset Analytics (credit default swaps, option volatility and stock prices) – to help drive investment insights and ideas for clients. This experience led to a Business Technology Officer role for the Investment Banking and Global Capital Markets divisions. Her career path also includes a brief stint at an e-commerce start-up and past experience in Financial Planning & Analysis (Lehman Brothers) and Consulting (Ernst & Young)

Valisha is active with diversity efforts and helped launch EDIT (Enhancing Diversity in Technology) at Morgan Stanley, the first Wall Street forum aimed at Black and Latino technology professionals. She was a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program for nearly a decade.

She is a Trustee at her high school alma mater, Suffield Academy, where she was an A Better Chance Scholar. She is a member of the Cornell University Council, President’s Council of Cornell Women (PCCW), Cornell Black Alumni Association and Cornell Mosaic where she leads the Development Committee. 

She earned an MBA from Columbia University and a BA in Government/International Relations from Cornell University. She has passed the Level I and II CFA exams. She has been an instructor at the New York Institute of Finance and has taught Fintech Strategy at Columbia Business School, Case Western Weatherhead School of Management and the UMass Lowell Manning School of Business.