Ruchir Sharma joins Rockefeller International as its MD and Chairman

Ruchir Sharma, former head of emerging markets equity at Morgan Stanley’s investment management arm, will join US-based financial advisory firm Rockefeller International as its Managing Director and Chairman.

Sharma will serve as an advisor to help expand the firm's global business starting February 14, according to a Rockefeller release.

Sharma, 47, also plans to form an investment company, Breakout Capital, in which Rockefeller Capital Management will be a partner. At Rockefeller Capital Management, he will report directly to Fleming and have a seat on the firm’s management committee, it said.


“He’ll be a great asset to our advisors, bankers and clients across businesses and borders,” said Rockefeller Capital Management’s President and CEO Gregory Fleming in the release on Thursday. “The firm looks forward to working with Sharma in the development of his new investment firm, which will build on his long experience in emerging markets.”

In November 2021, Sharma left Morgan Stanley after a 25-year stint.

New York-based Sharma, who directly managed close to $20 billion in assets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, joined the bank as an associate in 1996.

At Morgan Stanley, Sharma mostly managed money of pension funds and sovereign wealth funds. The funds he managed there invested in emerging markets, Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Sharma's core Morgan Stanley Global Emerging Markets fund beat the MSCI benchmark index by 6.9% over the previous year at the time of his exit. The Emerging Leaders fund returned 26.14% in the year to October 31, 2020 as against the 16.96% of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index during the same period, according to Morgan Stanley’s performance disclosures.

The Next Gen Emerging Markets fund, another product overseen by Sharma, returned 44.02% in the year to October 31 compared with the 23.72% gains in the MSCI Frontier Emerging Markets Net Index.