Greg Fleming (businessman)

Gregory James Fleming
Born	(1963-02-27) February 27, 1963 Hopewell Junction, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Executive, investment banker, lecturer
Years active	1988–present
Known for	CEO of Rockefeller Capital Management; former president and COO of Merrill Lynch; president of Morgan Stanley Investment Management; president of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney; Yale Law School lecturer

Gregory James Fleming (born February 27, 1963) is a prominent American executive and investment banker. He currently holds the position of CEO at Rockefeller Capital Management and also teaches courses on ethics and financial markets at Yale Law School. Previously, Fleming was president and chief operating officer at Merrill Lynch, where he played a key role in significant mergers and acquisitions during the 2000s, notably overseeing the $50 billion acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America. In 2010, he took on the role of president at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, followed by his appointment as president of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in 2011. Fleming became the inaugural president and CEO of Rockefeller Capital in 2017. Additionally, he serves on the trustee advisory board of Millennium Management, LLC and is a member of the board of directors at BlackRock.

Early life and education

Born on February 27, 1963, Fleming was raised in Hopewell Junction, New York, where both his parents worked as educators. He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Colgate University in 1985. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1988.

Career

Fleming began his professional journey in 1988 as a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, eventually advancing to principal. In 1992, Merrill Lynch recruited him to revamp its municipal bond division. He played an advisory role in BlackRock’s IPO in 1999 and was later promoted to lead Merrill Lynch’s U.S. financial institutions group. By 2003, he had been appointed head of global investment banking and subsequently became co-president of the capital markets division, managing the 2006 merger between Merrill Lynch Investment Management and BlackRock. In May 2007, Fleming and Ahmass Fakahany were named co-presidents of Merrill Lynch, with Fleming becoming chief operating officer in June 2008. Following the merger with Bank of America in January 2009, he stepped down to join Yale University as a senior research scholar and lecturer in law.

In 2010, Fleming assumed the presidency of Morgan Stanley Investment Management and joined its operating committee. The following year, he was promoted to president of global wealth management. He left Morgan Stanley in January 2016 but maintained his teaching role at Yale. In August 2016, Fleming was appointed to the board of Putnam Investments. That same year, he provided assistance to Anthony Scaramucci during the sale of SkyBridge Capital and represented Derek Jeter in the acquisition consortium for the Miami Marlins in 2017. Also in 2017, Fleming was named founding CEO of Rockefeller Capital Management and took an ownership position.

Fleming is frequently cited on market-related topics and has long championed expanding H1B visa allocations to bolster specialized sectors within the U.S. labor market. The Financial Times credited him in September 2022 with significantly growing Rockefeller Capital Management’s footprint and assets across various American cities. Bloomberg reported in April 2023 that Rockefeller secured a substantial investment from the Demarais family aimed at accelerating growth. Fleming continues to serve on Millennium Management’s trustee advisory board and joined BlackRock’s board of directors in April 2025.

Personal life

He and his spouse Melissa are parents to three children.