As MSCI’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Henry Fernandez has led the firm for almost three decades to its position today as a premier provider of indexes and portfolio-construction and risk-management tools, as well as climate and sustainability data and research, across public and private assets. In 2019 and 2021, Mr. Fernandez was one of 30 executives named in the Barron’s list of the World’s Best CEOs.
MSCI is an NYSE-listed company with revenues of over USD 2.7 billion and a market cap of over USD 40 billion. It is headquartered in New York, with more than 6,000 employees in more than 25 countries, and with clients in more than 100 countries. By establishing globally recognized standards and offering a common language to market participants, MSCI plays a central role in connecting the providers of capital with the seekers of capital. Its clients represent the world’s largest investors, including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, asset managers, mutual funds, ETF providers, hedge funds, and banks, as well as global corporations.
Prior to becoming CEO of MSCI, Mr. Fernandez was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, where he worked in emerging-markets business strategy, equity-derivatives sales and trading, mergers and acquisitions, mortgage-backed securities, and corporate finance. Before Morgan Stanley, he was President of the private-equity firm HispaniMedia, Inc., and founded Ferco Partners, Inc., a private-equity investment firm in Mexico. He was also a diplomat at the Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Fernandez serves on the boards of directors/trustees of Royalty Pharma plc, Stanford University, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, KAUST Investment Management Company, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the Foreign Policy Association. A former Chair of the Advisory Council at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Mr. Fernandez currently serves as an emeritus member of the Advisory Council. In addition, he is a member of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero Principals Group.
Mr. Fernandez holds a BA degree in economics from Georgetown University and an MBA from Stanford University, and he pursued doctoral studies in economics at Princeton University. He was born in Mexico and grew up in Nicaragua, and now lives in New York City with his wife. They have three children.
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