James Gorman and Hiroshi Mikitani are prominent global business leaders, but there is no well-documented direct business partnership between them. Gorman is the former Morgan Stanley CEO who now chairs The Walt Disney Company, while Mikitani remains the founder and chief executive of Japan’s Rakuten Group.
The most useful way to understand James Gorman and Hiroshi Mikitani is not as partners in a hidden deal or joint company, but as two executives who represent very different models of global leadership. Gorman reshaped a major financial institution and managed an orderly succession. Mikitani built and continues to run a founder-led ecosystem spanning e-commerce, financial services, mobile communications and digital businesses.
Who Are James Gorman and Hiroshi Mikitani?
James P. Gorman is an Australian-born banker and corporate director best known for leading Morgan Stanley from January 2010 through December 2023. After one year as executive chairman, he became Morgan Stanley’s Chairman Emeritus in January 2025. He is also Chairman of the Board of The Walt Disney Company.
Hiroshi Mikitani is a Japanese entrepreneur who founded Rakuten in 1997. Rakuten currently lists him as Representative Director, Chairman, President and CEO, making him much more directly involved in day-to-day corporate leadership than Gorman is at Morgan Stanley today.
| Area | James Gorman | Hiroshi Mikitani |
|---|---|---|
| Best known for | Former CEO of Morgan Stanley | Founder of Rakuten |
| Current main corporate role | Chairman of The Walt Disney Company; Chairman Emeritus of Morgan Stanley | Representative Director, Chairman, President and CEO of Rakuten Group |
| Career background | Law, consulting, banking | Banking, entrepreneurship |
| Education | University of Melbourne; MBA, Columbia Business School | Hitotsubashi University; MBA, Harvard Business School |
| Leadership model | Professional executive and board leadership | Founder-led management |
| Main industry association | Financial services and corporate governance | E-commerce, fintech, mobile and digital services |
What Is the Connection Between James Gorman and Hiroshi Mikitani?
There is no verified evidence in the current official corporate biographies and materials reviewed for this article showing that James Gorman and Hiroshi Mikitani jointly operate a company, sit together on a corporate board or maintain a major disclosed commercial partnership.
Their strongest identifiable connection is broader. Both have been prominent figures in international business circles and have profiles associated with the World Economic Forum. The WEF describes Mikitani as Rakuten’s founder and chairman and identifies Gorman through his Morgan Stanley leadership career.
That distinction matters. Search results that place the two names together can create the impression that there is a specific deal, friendship, investment or corporate relationship behind the query. Publicly available primary sources do not currently establish such a relationship.
Instead, comparing them is useful because their careers illustrate two substantially different approaches to building and governing multinational businesses.
James Gorman’s Career and Morgan Stanley Transformation
Gorman began his professional career as an attorney in Melbourne before moving into management consulting at McKinsey & Company. He subsequently held senior positions at Merrill Lynch and joined Morgan Stanley in 2006. He became co-president in 2007 and CEO in January 2010.
His timing was significant. Morgan Stanley was still dealing with the consequences of the global financial crisis, and Gorman’s tenure became associated with increasing the importance of wealth and investment management alongside the firm’s traditional investment-banking and trading businesses.
Expansion of Wealth Management
A defining transaction came in 2020 when Morgan Stanley agreed to acquire E*TRADE.
Morgan Stanley said at the time that E*TRADE brought more than 5.2 million client accounts and over $360 billion in retail client assets. Gorman described the acquisition as part of the firm’s move toward a business mix with more durable revenue sources.
The acquisition closed in October 2020, with Morgan Stanley reporting that its enlarged wealth-management operation then oversaw approximately $3.3 trillion in assets.
Morgan Stanley followed this with its acquisition of investment manager Eaton Vance. The bank said the combination would increase fee-based revenue and expand the scale of its investment-management operations.
These transactions help explain Gorman’s broader corporate strategy. Rather than relying as heavily on businesses whose earnings can swing sharply with trading and investment-banking cycles, Morgan Stanley expanded operations that could generate recurring management and advisory fees.
Gorman’s Succession at Morgan Stanley
Gorman stepped down as CEO at the end of 2023. Ted Pick became CEO on January 1, 2024, while Gorman moved into the executive-chairman position.
The transition continued at the end of 2024. Morgan Stanley announced that Pick would also become chairman on January 1, 2025, while Gorman would retire from the company and become Chairman Emeritus.
This makes succession planning an important part of Gorman’s recent career story. He did not remain in operational control indefinitely after leaving the CEO position.
James Gorman’s Role at Disney
Gorman’s post-Morgan Stanley career is now closely connected with The Walt Disney Company.
Disney appointed him chairman of its board effective January 2, 2025. Before taking the chairmanship, he had already been leading Disney’s Succession Planning Committee, which was responsible for overseeing the process of selecting a successor to Bob Iger.
That process concluded in 2026. Disney announced on February 3 that its board had unanimously selected Josh D’Amaro as the company’s next CEO, with the appointment becoming effective at Disney’s March 18, 2026 annual meeting.
Disney’s current corporate governance information continues to identify Gorman as Board Chair.
Gorman therefore moved from running one of the world’s major investment banks to overseeing governance at one of the largest entertainment companies.
Who Is Hiroshi Mikitani?
Hiroshi Mikitani took a very different route.
Born in Kobe, Japan, he studied at Hitotsubashi University, joined the Industrial Bank of Japan in 1988 and later received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1993. He founded the business that became Rakuten in February 1997.
Unlike Gorman, Mikitani did not build his reputation primarily by rising through the management structure of an established multinational corporation. He created the company with which his name is still most closely associated.
Rakuten currently describes its operations as an ecosystem of more than 70 businesses covering areas including e-commerce, digital content, communications and financial technology. The company says its global ecosystem reaches approximately 2.1 billion people.
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How Mikitani Built the Rakuten Ecosystem
Rakuten began with online commerce, but Mikitani’s strategy expanded far beyond running an internet marketplace.
The group now operates businesses connected with online shopping, travel, banking, securities, credit cards, payments, digital content and telecommunications. The concept tying these businesses together is the Rakuten Ecosystem.
Rakuten’s 2025 annual report explains that the group aims to increase the lifetime value of customers by encouraging them to use multiple Rakuten services while controlling customer-acquisition costs. Its ecosystem is supported by more than 2.1 billion members globally and more than 100 million in Japan, according to the company.
For example, a consumer might use Rakuten’s shopping services, earn Rakuten Points, use a Rakuten credit card, hold an account with Rakuten Bank and subscribe to Rakuten Mobile. Each additional service potentially increases the customer’s engagement with the broader group.
That model is fundamentally different from Morgan Stanley’s strategy under Gorman, even though both rely heavily on strengthening long-term customer relationships.
Rakuten’s Current Financial Position
Rakuten reported consolidated revenue of ¥2.497 trillion for the year ended December 31, 2025, an increase of 9.5% from the previous year. IFRS operating income was ¥14.4 billion.
One of the most closely watched parts of Mikitani’s recent strategy has been Rakuten Mobile.
Building a nationwide mobile network required substantial investment and placed financial pressure on the group. By 2025, however, Rakuten reported that its mobile segment had achieved full-year EBITDA profitability for the first time. Rakuten Mobile subscriptions reached approximately 10.01 million at the end of December 2025.
The milestone does not mean that every profitability challenge disappeared. The mobile business still recorded a non-GAAP operating loss for 2025. It does show that the economics of the operation were improving compared with previous years.
Mikitani’s Ownership Position
Another major difference between James Gorman and Hiroshi Mikitani is ownership.
Gorman was a professional executive at Morgan Stanley rather than its founder. Mikitani founded Rakuten and remains a substantial shareholder.
A February 2026 Rakuten disclosure listed Mikitani personally as holding approximately 8.14% of Rakuten Group shares. Crimson Group, LLC, another major shareholder associated with Mikitani’s business interests, was listed separately with 10.43%.
That ownership structure gives Mikitani’s position characteristics that are different from those of a conventional hired CEO.
Personal net-worth estimates for prominent executives vary substantially between third-party publications, so unsupported figures are not necessary to understand either man’s corporate influence.
James Gorman and Hiroshi Mikitani: Two Leadership Models
The clearest difference between the two is not geography or industry. It is the structure through which each exercised leadership.
Gorman: Institutional Transformation
Gorman inherited leadership of an established financial institution. His challenge was to change its business mix, strengthen more stable sources of revenue and eventually transfer management to another executive.
Morgan Stanley’s acquisitions of E*TRADE and Eaton Vance demonstrate that shift toward wealth and asset management.
His current Disney position is even further removed from founder-style management. As board chairman, his function centers on governance and oversight rather than running Disney’s operations, which are led by CEO Josh D’Amaro.
Mikitani: Founder-Led Expansion
Mikitani remains both an owner and operating leader.
His strategy has involved repeatedly extending Rakuten into new categories and attempting to connect those businesses through membership, data, loyalty programs and shared customer relationships.
Rakuten’s move into mobile communications is a good example. Rather than simply buying another internet service, the company entered an infrastructure-heavy industry that could potentially deepen the usefulness of the wider Rakuten ecosystem.
What They Have in Common
Despite their differences, several genuine similarities exist.
Both men began their careers with strong exposure to finance. Gorman ultimately built his career inside consulting and large financial institutions, while Mikitani worked at the Industrial Bank of Japan before becoming an entrepreneur.
Both have also operated internationally rather than focusing solely on domestic companies.
Mikitani studied in the United States and has repeatedly pushed Rakuten toward international expansion. Gorman was born and educated in Australia before building much of his professional career in the United States.
Both have also appeared in international business forums. The World Economic Forum maintains profiles for Gorman and Mikitani reflecting their prominence in global corporate leadership.
The similarities stop short of proving a direct partnership. They instead show why the two executives can reasonably appear in the same discussion about global corporate strategy.
Major Differences Between Gorman and Mikitani
Their careers become clearer when the contrasts are made explicit.
Gorman did not found Morgan Stanley. He was recruited into the company, rose into its senior leadership and eventually handed responsibility to a successor.
Mikitani created Rakuten and remains its principal executive almost three decades later.
Gorman’s most important strategic decisions at Morgan Stanley largely involved reshaping an existing financial institution through changes in business mix and acquisitions. Mikitani’s career has involved building a collection of interconnected businesses around a company he established himself.
Their current responsibilities are also very different. Gorman’s Morgan Stanley role is now honorary, while his active Disney position is at board level. Mikitani remains Rakuten’s chairman, president and CEO and continues to hold operational authority.
Why the James Gorman and Hiroshi Mikitani Comparison Matters
The comparison provides a useful example of how large companies can be built through different governance systems.
Morgan Stanley under Gorman demonstrates how a professional CEO can substantially alter the direction of a mature institution without owning or founding it.
Rakuten under Mikitani shows the different advantages and pressures of long-term founder control. A founder can pursue strategies over many years with unusual continuity, but the organization also remains closely associated with that individual’s decisions.
Neither structure automatically produces better results. The practical question is whether the company’s leadership model fits its strategy, capital requirements, governance needs and stage of development.
For that reason, James Gorman and Hiroshi Mikitani are more accurately viewed as a business-leadership comparison than as a corporate partnership.
FAQ
Are James Gorman and Hiroshi Mikitani business partners?
No significant direct business partnership between them is identified in the official corporate materials reviewed for this article. Gorman is associated primarily with Morgan Stanley and Disney, while Mikitani is the founder and current CEO of Rakuten Group.
Do James Gorman and Hiroshi Mikitani work for the same company?
No. Gorman is Chairman of The Walt Disney Company and Chairman Emeritus of Morgan Stanley. Mikitani is Representative Director, Chairman, President and CEO of Rakuten Group.
Is James Gorman still CEO of Morgan Stanley?
No. Gorman stopped serving as Morgan Stanley CEO at the end of 2023. Ted Pick became CEO on January 1, 2024, and Gorman became Chairman Emeritus in January 2025.
What does James Gorman do now?
Gorman is Chairman of The Walt Disney Company’s Board of Directors and Chairman Emeritus of Morgan Stanley. Disney’s current governance information continues to list him as board chair.
What does Hiroshi Mikitani do now?
As of Rakuten’s April 1, 2026 management information, Mikitani is Representative Director, Chairman, President and CEO of Rakuten Group. He is also involved in other Rakuten-related organizations, including Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony.
What is the biggest difference between James Gorman and Hiroshi Mikitani?
Gorman’s career is primarily that of a professional executive who transformed and then handed over leadership of an established financial institution. Mikitani is a founder, substantial shareholder and continuing operating chief of the company he created.
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