Meet Ross Harris

Ross Harris, Founder

Meet Ross Harris. A Greensboro native and graduate of Duke University, where she earned both her AB and MBA, Ross has more than 40 years of national and international marketing experience on both the client and agency sides of the business. She began her career at the Leo Burnett Company in Chicago, working on some of the world’s most recognized brands, including the Kellogg, Pillsbury, Green Giant, McDonald’s and Philip Morris accounts and rising through the ranks to become a VP. While the majority of her time was spent in Chicago, she also did a tour in the Taipei, Taiwan office for the agency.

A move to the client side also brought a welcome move back home to North Carolina, with an offer from Burlington Industries to be Divisional VP to help steer the Lees Carpet brand. Ross Harris joined Trone in 1999 and started her own business marketing and communications company, The Harris Partners, in 2007.

Ross has extensive experience as both a campaign manager and political strategist in partisan, nonpartisan, and referendum campaigns in North Carolina. Ross is well-known in the Triad area for her work as the initial Project Manager for the Steven Tanger Performing Arts Center, a two-year initiative that involved input from the entire Greensboro community. Her efforts included development, City Council approval, and community support for the project.

In July 2014, Ross became the Executive Director of the NC Institute of Political Leadership, an organization committed to improving the practice of democracy through its premier nonpartisan leadership training program for public servants. She was named an Honorary Fellow of the Institute in December 2015.

She was named Director, Marketing and Communications for the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro in June 2019 and she was promoted to Vice President in August 2020.

Ross is active at her alma mater, having served as President of the Duke University Alumni Association and a member of the Duke University Board of Trustees, as well as a member of the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy’s Board of Visitors. She currently is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Duke Cancer Institute, the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center, and the Duke Supportive Care and Survivorship Center.

Ross is also passionate about her native city with significant involvement with the Greensboro Day School, Greensboro Rotary Club, Cone Health Foundation, Greensboro Sports Council, and First Presbyterian Church. She is devoted to her miniature apricot poodle, Henry, who, like Ross, is fan of golf and the Duke Blue Devils.