04 Aug 2025 FEP Demands Answers from Morgan Stanley After DEI Allegations

Washington, D.C. – The National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project (FEP) is pressing Morgan Stanley for an explanation after being contacted by an apparent whistleblower who alleged that the investment banking company continues to engage in potentially illegal Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI) employment practices.

After being contacted by the whistleblower on July 24, FEP Executive Director Stefan Padfield engaged in independent research to verify the claims. Today Padfield sent a letter to Morgan Stanley’s board of directors, asking for an official response to several questions pertaining to Morgan Stanley’s internal DEI programs. A copy of Mr. Padfield’s letter can be found here.

Padfield’s letter, among other things, requests that the company account for the expected return on investment (ROI) of continuing its DEI programs, asks if diversity metrics are considered in executive compensation and questions whether Morgan Stanley ever responded to a letter from multiple state attorneys general arguing that many aspects of corporate diversity programs are likely unlawful as per the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Students For Fair Admission v. Harvard.

Transparent answers from Morgan Stanley to these questions would serve to improve shareholder confidence that the board is both committed to ideological neutrality and takes seriously its fiduciary duty to insulate share value from needless litigation risk.

Stefan Padfield

“Americans have seen impressive gains recently when it comes to ridding corporations of illegal discrimination carried out in the name of DEI,” said Padfield. “But activists committed to ‘discrimination in the name of anti-discrimination’ will not go quietly, so we must continue to demand accountability whenever we see warning signs that corporations are merely rebranding rather than changing.”

Padfield’s letter to Morgan Stanley concludes by noting the National Center looks forward to engaging further with the company on these issues. The National Center is a Morgan Stanley shareholder and has previously questioned company executives at shareholder meetings.

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The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank. Ninety-four percent of its support comes from individuals, less than four percent from foundations and less than two percent from corporations. It receives over 350,000 individual contributions a year from over 60,000 active recent contributors.

FEP, the original and premier opponent of the woke takeover of American corporate life, aims to push corporations to respect their fiduciary obligations and to stay out of political and social engineering. More relevant information about individual corporations and FEP’s proxy voting recommendations (including how to automate voting your values) can be found in FEP’s mobile and web app, ProxyNavigator.

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