Charissa Smith

Charissa H. Smith, as Head of Private Markets Planning, is responsible for coordinating MSCI’s Private Asset activities. Charissa is also a member of MSCI’s Executive Committee.

Charissa began her career at Morgan Stanley in quantitative research, building risk models and portfolio optimization tools in support of Morgan Stanley’s equity clients and international portfolio trading efforts. In 1998, Charissa joined MSCI in Geneva and played a key role in laying the foundations for MSCI’s Index business, including the development and launch of GICS and the transition to float-weighted indexes.

After briefly retiring in 2008, Charissa served as a Strategic Advisor to MSCI between 2014 and 2021. During this phase, she helped design and implement MSCI’s IOSCO and EU Benchmarks Regulation response, along with compliance for the Index and Real Estate businesses. Additionally, she was instrumental in the transformation of several MSCI’s Real Estate Product business processes.

Charissa holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from Oberlin College.