David Darst


David Martin Darst, CFA, is an American financier, educator, author, and triathlete. For 17 years, he was a Managing Director and Chief Investment Strategist of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, where he served as Vice Chairman of the Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Global Investment Committee. He was the founding President of the Morgan Stanley Investment Group, and the founding Chairman of the Morgan Stanley Asset Allocation Committee. Since 2014, he has served as an independent Senior Advisor to and a member of the Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Global Investment Committee.

Early life

Darst was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, the third of five sons born to Guy Bewley Darst and Susan Mary McGinnis Darst. Darst attended Father Ryan High School in Nashville, TN and earned a high school diploma from Phillips Exeter Academy, a BA degree in Economics from Yale University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Lecturing and professional associations

Darst has lectured at Wharton, Columbia University, INSEAD, New York University, Washington State University, and Rice University business schools, and for nine years, Darst served as a visiting faculty member at Yale College, Yale School of Management, and Harvard Business School. He serves on the Investment Committee of the Phi Beta Kappa Foundation, and is a CFA Charterholder and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and the CFA Institute. On November 3, 2011 at the Metropolitan Club in New York, Darst was inducted by Quinnipiac University into their Business Leaders Hall of Fame.

Media appearances and publications

Darst has been profiled and/or quoted by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Barron's, Worth magazine, and the Yale Economic Review.
Darst has also been an occasional contributor of articles to Forbes.com.

Books

His books have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Russian, German, Romanian, Korean, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian, and Vietnamese.