Meet Kaitlin Elliott, a Role Model for Women in STEM

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day is one of the first times children are exposed to career possibilities. Kaitlin Elliott’s visit to the trading floor at Morgan Stanley with her aunt in the 1990s was the first inspiration to lead her to Wall Street herself.

“As a child, I was always very ambitious and set the bar high,” says Kaitlin. “I loved seeing my aunt succeed as a woman in our industry and could see myself in a similar position one day. It was something to strive for.”

Today, as Head of Morgan Stanley’s Firmwide Generative AI Solutions team, she’s now a role model for young women herself and spends a lot of time mentoring that younger generation. She’s admired for her impactful and highly lauded work in artificial intelligence. This year, not only was Kaitlin promoted to an Executive Director but she also was named a Morgan Stanley MAKER, joining a community of advocates, innovators and groundbreakers for women’s advancement, all nominated by their peers.

Younger colleagues are noticing and noting her example. “A number of analysts have reached out to say, ‘Seeing you succeed lets me know that I can do it too,” says Kaitlin, adding that “having a program like MAKERS helps us as employees understand that the firm truly takes the advancement of women seriously.”

AN INNOVATOR

Kaitlin started at Morgan Stanley with no corporate or internship experience. She was a history major with a minor in dance from Providence College. When asked during her interview where she wanted to be 20 years from now, she blurted out, “I’ll be head of HR at Morgan Stanley one day!”

Grateful that the firm “took a chance” in bringing her into the Human Resources Department as a consultant, Kaitlin set out to show how hardworking she is. She was soon hired into Corporate Security and Investigations, doing background checks and employee screenings. She was an asset to the department for five years, helping to mitigate reputational risk.

Eager to learn more and now with a solid foundation at the firm, she moved to the Wealth Management division and started a role in the analytics and data team, handling sensitive data and evaluating how to mitigate data security risk. Her career pivot into artificial intelligence began when she started working with OpenAI as part of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s strategic partnership. Learning the technology from the very people who created it, she jumped in feet first and became so immersed in the tool that she established herself as an AI expert within a few months. “It was something I picked up very easily,” says Kaitlin.

Today, the firm’s leaders consistently refer to her as one of the “top 100 experts in OpenAI’s technology” in a male-dominated space composed of almost exclusively engineers. She has, in many ways, become “the face of AI at the Firm” with her approachable delivery and depth of knowledge.

Recently, after months of collaboration within the firm, she and her team rolled out a generative AI notetaking assistant to leverage during client meetings, empowering financial advisors to focus on strategic and high-value tasks over mundane ones. “We believe in a future where technology amplifies human potential,” Kaitlin beams.

LEADING WITH CURIOSITY

She corelates her ability to quickly learn with her core value of leading with curiosity. “It’s something I’ve done my entire life,” Kaitlin says. Leading with curiosity, she believes, is what helps her to connect well with others. “I’ve always been good at establishing relationships because I show interest in others and authentically show up as myself,” she says.

Kaitlin thrives being a woman in tech, something she hopes to see grow more prevalent industrywide. It helps that her job is an innovative one that allows her to try new things in a supportive environment.

“AI is going to change and transform the way we as humans show up, not only in the workplace but in our everyday lives,” says Kaitlin. “Without diverse perspectives and inputs into how we integrate and implement this technology, we will end up using it to solve problems only for specific groups.”

DIVERSITY CHAMPION

That’s why Kaitlin has gotten involved in nearly every D&I activity she can at Morgan Stanley, from its analyst program to innovation challenges such as one created by the firm’s Black Leaders Forum in 2022. Kaitlin was a finalist in a competition to create the best solution for bridging the wealth gap for the Black community.

Kaitlin is an ally in the PRIDE employee network at Morgan Stanley and many community service organizations for LGBTQ+ outreach. She’s also a junior board member of InTandem, an organization for differently abled cyclists.

An avid cyclist herself, she loves the outdoors and traveling. By 2019, she had accomplished her goal of visiting 30 countries before she turned 30.

Never letting go of that inspiration she felt as a little girl, Kaitlin’s ambitions remain large, stating, “I don’t have to narrow my vision of who I want to become—in this world and at this company.” She doesn’t shy away from predicting her future, as she did in that first interview. “I can see myself in the C-suite at Morgan Stanley one day.”