Bio
Ruchir Sharma is Chairman of Rockefeller International, the global arm of Rockefeller Capital Management, and Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Breakout Capital, an investment firm focused on emerging markets. He moved to Rockefeller in 2022 after a 25 year career at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, where he was Head of Emerging Markets and Chief Global Strategist.
Ruchir is the author most recently of What Went Wrong with Capitalism, which was named one of the Wall Street Journal’s books of the year, critically acclaimed from both the right and left for its surprising and data driven analysis of why so many people in advanced countries are disillusioned with the system that brought them prosperity. His four other books include a 2016 New York Times bestseller, The Rise and Fall of Nations, which put Ruchir on the cover of Barrons as “Wall Street’s New Global Thinker.” His 2012 international bestseller, Breakout Nations, earned Ruchir the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award, reached the Wall Street Journal hardcover business bestseller list, and was chosen by Foreign Policy as one of its “21 Books to Read in 2012”.
Ruchir is a columnist at the Financial Times, and before that for five years at the New York Times. He became a writer before he became a investor, penning columns at age 17 for India’s largest economic daily, The Economic Times. His commentary has since appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, Bloomberg and The Guardian, among others.
Based in New York and Miami, Ruchir travels the world frequently, meeting with leading politicians, CEOs, and other local characters who populate his writing about developed and emerging economies, and inform his investment calls.
The World Economic Forum cited Sharma as one of its “Top Young Leaders” in 2007. In 2012, Foreign Policy magazine cited Sharma as one of its top global thinkers and the following year, India’s premier weekly magazine Outlook named him one of “The World’s 25 Smartest Indians.” Bloomberg ranked Ruchir among the world’s 50 Most Influential people in 2015. The following year, GQ India named Sharma the Global Indian of the Year.
Sharma is passionate about politics and has led a band of writers covering every national election and many major state contests in India, going back to 1998. On a typical trip they travel about 1,000 miles in a week, and have interviewed everyone from local voters to giants of Indian national politics, including Narendra Modi and the Gandhis. The band has grown over the years from three journalist friends to 20 regulars and a rotating cast of guests. These adventures are captured in his 2019 book, Democracy on the Road: a 25-year Journey Through India.
No matter where Ruchir is in the world, or how hectic his schedule is, he tries not to miss a single day of training. In 2011, he represented India in the World Masters Athletic championship in Sacramento, and he continues to train for the 100- and 200-meter sprints. Sharma also has a keen interest in wildlife and cinema and attends international film festivals when he can find a moment away from investing, writing and running.
