Ruchir Sharma

Ruchir Sharma is Chairman of Rockefeller International 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.

Sharma has been a writer for longer than he has been an investor. At age 17 he started writing for India’s largest economic daily, The Economic Times. His commentary has since appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Bloomberg and The Guardian, among others. He was a contributing opinion writer at the New York Times from 2016 to 2021 and is currently a contributing editor and columnist at the Financial Times.

Based in New York and Miami, he travels frequently to different countries, meeting with leading politicians, CEOs, and other local characters, who populate his writing.

Sharma is the author of five books: What Went Wrong with Capitalism was published by Simon & Schuster in 2024; The 10 Rules of Successful Nations, was published by Norton in 2020 as an updated adaptation of The Rise and Fall of Nations: Forces of Change in the Post-Crisis World, which was released in 2016 and became a New York Times best seller. In 2012, his first book, Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles, debuted as the number one bestseller in India, and earned Sharma the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award for 2012. Breakout Nations also made the Wall Street Journal hardcover business bestseller list, and was chosen by Foreign Policy as one of its “21 Books to Read in 2012”.

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 as 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 and Barron’s put him on its cover as “Wall Street’s New Global Thinker.”

Sharma is passionate about politics and has covered every national election in India, and many major state contests, going back to 1998. He led the first trip with three journalist friends, and the pack has since grown to 20 regulars and a few guest travelers. They typically travel a 1,000 miles over a week, and have interviewed everyone from local voters to national leaders, including Narendra Modi and the Gandhis. These travels are captured in his 2019 book, Democracy on the Road: a 25-year Journey Through India.

Sharma’s other interests include athletics and he continues to train for the 100 and 200 meters sprints. No matter where he is in the world, or how hectic his schedule, he tries not to miss a single day of training. In 2011, he represented India in the World Masters Athletic championship in Sacramento. 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.