Morgan Stanley’s Marta Decatrel
Morgan Stanley’s Marta Decatrel Celebrates HITEC 100 List Honor
MAKING A DIFFERENCE:
For many women, the technology industry is an intimidating career to jump into, but for Marta Decatrel, it empowers her. From the very beginning, she knew this was something she wanted to do, and became the first woman in her family to pursue a position in STEM. Decatrel has been advocating women in technology since she could remember. In an industry where the ratio from men to women still isn’t where she wants it to be, her willingness and passion for developing interest of technology in not only Latinas, but all women, has brought her many opportunities and success for over 25 years.
Today, she celebrates making the HITEC 100 list, and being one of the top 100 Latinos in the country in the technology industry. She tells us that she attended HITEC's Silicon Valley Leadership Summit this past fall, and one of the things that really struck her was the number of women that were in attendance. “It was such an honor to be surrounded by so many successful Latinas--women who exemplify the tremendous impact we're making in Technology” she says. Decatrel says she owes much of her own success to Morgan Stanley, the leading global investment firm she has been with for 21 years.
Decatrel serves as Executive Director of Technology at Morgan Stanley, an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in New York, New York. When asked how Morgan Stanley has helped her excel in her career, she said, “At Morgan Stanley, diversity is part of our core fabric. We understand that to be a global leader and organization that continually strives for excellence our corporate culture must be open and inclusive. This not only helps us serve our clients better, but it helps our employees, such as myself, achieve their professional objectives. Morgan Stanley has created, and continues to build a culture of inclusion evidenced through our constant focus on recruiting, developing and advancing individuals based on their skills and talent.” The firm has helped Decatrel reinvent her career.
“WE HAVE IN THIS COUNTRY, CLOSE TO 58 MILLION LATINOS, AND YET LATINAS ONLY REPRESENT ABOUT 2% OF THOSE HOLDING SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING JOBS. WE NEED TO DO A BETTER JOB ENGAGING AND ATTRACTING THIS TALENT. IT’S UP TO US WHO ARE ON THE INSIDE TO DEMONSTRATE THE POSSIBLE AND INSPIRE THE NEXT GENERATION.”
In her current role as Executive Director, Decatrel embraces a diverse leadership style. She has been part of Morgan Stanley’s WIT (Women in Technology) organization for several years. The program has been crucial to helping women in tech at Morgan Stanley find role models, mentors and overall a support network to develop a personal development and career progression. It is also an organization that plays a big role in helping young girls and women that are interested in a tech career. Decatrel is part of a WIT working group focused on outreach and general recruiting. “We’ve made a difference in attracting more female technology talent to the Firm. This year half of our incoming class for our tech associate programs are women, and a significant percentage of them are racially diverse,” she tells us.
Mentorship and networking are two things that are really supported across the firm. They hold large sessions where they have leadership conferences that target their female technologists across the globe, all around inspiring that connection, offering training, helping facilitate the network, and celebrating the accomplishments of women in technology. More specifically around the Latinas. “When it comes to Latinas it becomes critical. Relatable role models are so few. Attracting that talent requires those of us who have broken through to share our experiences and inspire those to follow,” Decatrel says. When asked how she defines success Decatrel said it’s the feeling of making a difference. Whether it was when she was a tech writer where she helped take the complicated to make it more digestible, to today where she is looking more at the user experience and trying to ensure that the products they deliver help people be more productive, she gets satisfaction knowing she made a difference. “That is something that has been critical to my success. Is my ability to deliver something that added value.” +
DECATREL’S CAREER AT A GLANCE:
• College: Skidmore College; The George Washington University
• Senior Technical Writer - Citibank
• Consultant - BSG
• Senior Technical Writer - Bear Sterns
• Senior Technical Writer - Morgan Stanley
• Product Manager - Morgan Stanley
• Executive Director - Morgan Stanley
TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION OF WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY:
Girls Who Code is a national nonprofit organization that aims to support and increase the number of women in computer science by 2027. The program was founded by Reshma Saujani in 2012 who came up with the idea of creating the organization during her run for the United States Congress when she noticed that schools along her campaign route lacked girls in computer science classrooms.
Morgan Stanley is a sponsor of the nonprofit, and hosted their first Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program last summer. Marta Decatrel leads the technology and classroom track for the program at Morgan Stanley. The Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program is a seven week program covering a broad range of topics, from programming fundamentals to cyber security. Students are paired with Morgan Stanley mentors to serve as examples and create a connection with students.
Morgan Stanley's WIT has also partnered with Anita Borg on the Grace Hopper Celebration to ensure they have a diverse pipeline of students. This has helped increase the female-to-male ratio of incoming class graduates.