2019 Innovator: Naureen Hassan

As Morgan Stanley’s first chief digital officer for wealth management, Naureen Hassan oversees the technology and strategy underlying adviser desktop and client online access to the firm’s services.

[More: Naureen Hassan brings deep tech expertise to guide UBS digital shift]

The new position, created in 2016, reflects a recognition that technology is changing financial services, she said.

Ms. Hassan’s background in lean operations, which focuses on eliminating nonessential processes and adding value to the consumer, has informed her 15 years in the industry.

“The angle I’ve taken throughout my career is to use technology to make processes easier and more efficient for both advisers and clients,” she said. “There’s a view that a person has to choose between technology and [a human] adviser, but it’s about enabling both.”

Over the years, Ms. Hassan has introduced major innovations, including an artificial intelligence platform at Morgan Stanley that helps advisers by analyzing information and serving it to them with automated analysis and pre-written, customizable communications to clients.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Hassan helped Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. launch its retail robo-adviser. It had the ripple effect of offering well-diversified allocations to people without sizable portfolios, she said. And she introduced e-authorization, an alternative to fraud-vulnerable authentication options, which enables use of one’s fingerprint on a smartphone.

Looking to the future, Ms. Hassan said, “We’re continuing to see the advent of data. Advisers and firms that don’t use data to better serve their clients will be left behind.”

Leveraging technology plays a role in Ms. Hassan’s personal life, too. She telecommutes to the Morgan Stanley office in New York from San Francisco and stays connected online to her large extended family in India.