Heather Brilliant

Heather Brilliant, CFA, is managing director Americas of First State Investments, and vice-chair of the CFA Institute Board of Governors. From 2014-2017 she was chief executive officer of Morningstar Australasia, where she led a team of approximately 150 financial services professionals based in Australia and New Zealand. Before assuming this role in 2014, Brilliant was global director of equity and corporate credit research for seven years. In this role, she led Morningstar’s global equity and corporate credit research teams, consisting of more than 120 analysts, strategists, and directors. She also served on Morningstar’s Economic Moat committee, a group of senior members of the equity research team responsible for reviewing all of the firm’s Economic Moat and Moat Trend ratings.

Before joining Morningstar in 2003 as an equity analyst, Brilliant spent several years as an equity research analyst for boutique investment firms. She has covered a variety of sectors, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, business services, and retail. She started her finance career at Bank of America as a corporate finance analyst, covering the auto industry.

Brilliant holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation. Brilliant is vice-chair of the CFA Institute Board of Governors and is a past chairman of the CFA Society of Chicago.