Sponsor Profiles

Sandra L. Richards is a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, Head of Global Sports & Entertainment (GSE) and Segment Sales & Engagement (SSE) in the firm’s Wealth Management business based in New York. Now eleven years in business, Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment is a highly specialized wealth management division dedicated to serving the unique and complex needs of athletes, entertainers, creators, executives, and top professionals in the sports and entertainment industry. Under Sandra’s leadership, it has grown to over 300 Financial Advisors with the Global Sports & Entertainment Director/Associate Director designation, as well as the NFLPA Registered Institutional Player Financial Advisor designation.

Sandra was named a MAKER @ Morgan Stanley in 2015 and has been recognized with numerous awards for her professional accomplishments including, Crain’s New York Business’ Notable Women in Sports in 2022, Variety’s Women of Impact List in 2019, The Network Journal’s 25 Influential Black Women in Business Award in 2018, The New York Women’s Chamber of Commerce 2018 Women of Excellence Honoree, and the 2018 Vanguard Award Recipient from the Seton Hall Black Alumni Association. In 2023, Sandra’s honors and recognitions included: the Caribbean Luminary Award from the American Foundation for the University of West Indies AFUWI), being named a winner of Advertising Week New York’s Future is Female Award, one of Adweek’s Champions of Change, and to Sports Business Journal’s Game Changers Class of 2023. In 2025, Sandra was one of four recipients of the prestigious Women In Sports and Events (WISE) Women of the Year award.

She holds her undergraduate (’97) and graduate (’99) degrees from Seton Hall University, alongside an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Medgar Evers College, CUNY (’22). She is also a graduate of the ASCENT Leadership Program at Tuck Executive Education at Dartmouth College (’15), the Digital Marketing Strategies – Data, Automation, AI & Analytics program from Northwestern Kellogg School of Management (’21), and the globally renowned executive education program, The Business of Entertainment, Media and Sports at Harvard Business School (’21). In addition to her work in wealth management, Sandra is a celebrated children’s book author. She has been a featured speaker at numerous conferences and events and has been quoted in numerous media outlets and publications as a distinguished industry thought-leader.

In May of 2023, Sandra was elected to the National Trustee Board of the Boys & Girls Club of America. She also serves as the Board Vice Chair for Music’s Promise and a member of the Founders Advisory Council for the Williams Institute at UCLA.

In 2016, Sandra made her debut as a children’s book author with ‘Rice & Rocks’, a story celebrating culture and diversity for families seeking to teach their children about the value of their heritage and the importance of cultural diversity. “A beautiful, amusing tribute to family traditions.” – Kirkus Reviews.

Born to Jamaican parents, Sandra hails from Long Island, NY, where she was an avid basketball and volleyball player. She credits sports and its tremendous impact on her upbringing for instilling a true understanding of team dynamics and collaboration in her that has shaped her leadership style and her career.