Paul C. Wirth ’79CBA

Paul C. Wirth ’79CBA recently stepped down as the Deputy Chief Financial Officer for Morgan Stanley. In this role, he was responsibility for all of the principal finance functions of the firm, including business unit and regional chief financial officers, global controllers, external reporting, valuation review, and tax. He was a member of the firm’s Allowance for Credit Losses Governance Committee, Asset and Liability Management Committee, Data Quality Governance Committee, Enterprise Regulatory Oversight Committee, Global Franchise Committee, Management Committee, Risk Committee, Strategic Transactions Committee, and Technology Committee. 

Mr. Wirth served on the Board of Morgan Stanley Holdings LLC and on the supervisory boards of Morgan Stanley Europe Holding SE, Morgan Stanley Europe SE, and Morgan Stanley Bank Aktiengesellschaft. He also served as the executive sponsor for the firm’s disABILITY Network.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in this role in March of 2005, Mr. Wirth was Global Controller and Chief Accounting Officer at Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB). In addition, Mr. Wirth served as Chief Financial Officer of CSFB (USA), Inc., the US-based SEC registrant, and was a member of the CSFB Management Council. 

Mr. Wirth joined CSFB in February of 2004 from Deloitte & Touche (D&T), where he was the National Managing Partner for the Banking and Finance Practice and a member of D&T’s Global Banking & Securities Leadership Group. Previously, he spent 21 years with KPMG, 11 as a senior assurance partner in their New York Financial Services Practice. During that time, he served as the lead client service and audit partner for KPMG’s largest financial services’ client, with responsibility for all KPMG services globally.

Mr. Wirth’s career includes significant experience with financial reporting; risk oversight and corporate governance; financial crisis management; business line restructuring and transformation; acquisition and disposition transactions, including execution and operational challenges; regulatory relations and implementation of new regulatory requirements, including capital and liquidity; international operations; and technology and data management oversight.

Mr. Wirth is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, and Financial Executives International. He is a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority-Series 27 Financial and Operations Principal.

From 2004 through 2009, he served on the Board of Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation (the oversight body for the Financial Accounting Standards Board). In June 2007, Treasury & Risk Management magazine named Mr. Wirth as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Finance.”

Mr. Wirth serves as a member of the Board of Governors of St. John’s University and the Advisory Board of The Arc of Essex County. From 2011 through 2017, he served on the Board of Advisors of The Peter J. Tobin College of Businessat St. John’s University.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from St. John’s University in 1979. In 2019, the University honored Mr. Wirth by awarding him the outstanding alumni achievement medal.