Rachel Wilson

Chief Data Officer & Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management & Former NSA Senior Executive

Rachel Wilson

Chief Data Officer & Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management & Former NSA Senior Executive

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Biography

Rachel Wilson is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and Chief Data Officer. Her team of security professionals is responsible for protecting all sensitive client data from any type of theft, loss or compromise. She also oversees the resilience of Wealth Management’s critical infrastructure and the continuity of core business processes at times of turbulence. Additionally, Rachel supervises the client fraud risk program, which institutes technical and business controls to help prevent unauthorized access to or misuse of client funds. As a senior subject matter expert, Rachel regularly advises Wealth Management leadership and clients on the cyber threat landscape and mitigation strategies.

From 2017-2020, Rachel served as the first-ever Head of Wealth Management Cybersecurity. In this role, Rachel advised senior business and technology leaders on a range of cybersecurity issues, including secure code development standards, secure network architecture, vendor relationships, advanced persistent threat (APT) detection and mobile security. Her team drove innovation for new cybersecurity and authentication technology in the pursuit of protecting the integrity and confidentiality of firm and client data. In 2019, Rachel was recognized by Morgan Stanley Wealth Management as part of the MAKERS Class, a program that honors women who serve as groundbreakers, innovators and advocates. She was also named one of the Top Women in WealthTech 2020 by ThinkAdvisor.

Prior to joining the firm in 2017, Rachel spent 15 years at the National Security Agency (NSA), where she held several key senior executive-level leadership positions. Between 2008 and 2010, she ran NSA’s counterterrorism operations and led a global enterprise in detecting and disrupting terrorist plotting against the U.S. and its allies. Between 2010 and 2012, Rachel served as NSA’s Chief of Operations in the U.K., working out of the U.S. Embassy in London. In this role, she worked with U.K. intelligence services to counter terrorist and cyber threats to the 2012 Olympics. Returning to the U.S. in 2012, Rachel spent nearly five years leading NSA’s cyber exploitation operations as the Deputy and then Chief of the Remote Operations Center within NSA’s Tailored Access Operations. In this capacity, she led the planning and execution of thousands of cyber exploitation operations against a wide array of foreign intelligence, military and cyber targets, and served as the committing official for many of NSA’s highest risk and most important intelligence gathering activities.

Speaker Videos

The Brave New World and What to Do About It

Olympic & NSA Hacking

Protecting Yourself Against Cybercrime

The Cyber Threat Landscape

Paint, Miami, and Fraud

Protecting Schools Against Cyber Attack

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Speech Topics

From the Dark Web to Wall Street: A Career Journey

Rachel discusses her career at the NSA where she became the youngest person in NSA history to be elevated to the Senior Executive ranks all while raising a young family at home. She describes her decision to leave government and pursue a career on Wall Street as Morgan Stanley's first ever Head of Cybersecurity. In this talk, Rachel balances humor and candid stories with career advice and tales of caution and the challenges she faced on her journey.

The New Cyberthreat Landscape

As the types of cyberattacks and nature of the attackers has changed in the last 18 months, how should businesses be responding? Rachel Wilson brings her unique perspective as a former National Security Agency executive and current CISO for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management to bear on the question of how we can best defend ourselves against an increasingly hostile cyberenvironment.