Melissa Harris is a business columnist at The Chicago Tribune. Her twice-weekly column, Chicago Confidential, chronicles the city’s corporate elite – from their boardroom deals to who’s hanging out with the powerful, to who's just hanging on.

Prior to joining the Chicago Tribune, Melissa Harris covered crime for The Baltimore Sun and local government for The Orlando Sentinel, both Tribune Co. newspapers. She has worked for the company since the summer of 2001 when she interned in the Sentinel's Washington bureau. A graduate of Northwestern and Johns Hopkins universities, she landed her first “job” at age 15, covering prep sports for the Mason Pulse-Journal. By her senior year of high school, she felt she had made it when the paper paid her $25 per story.

Old movies, reading, working out, traveling, playing the piano, good food and sports. (College: Northwestern and Indiana; NFL: Ravens; MLB: Reds, Cubs, Orioles)

Harris: Digital push builds to rectify 1991 Pritzker Prize omission 5/23/2013
Harvard students' online petition recognizes work of Denise Scott Brown Denise Scott Brown has worked side by side with her husband, architect Robert Venturi , since the early 1960s, joining his firm and marrying him in 1967 and becoming the firm's principal in charge of planning in 1969.

Citadel's Kenneth Griffin exposes 'cronyism,' causes a stir at Economic Club 5/22/2013
Hedge fund manager criticizes Democratic control of city, state government Citadel LLC founder Kenneth Griffin named and shamed local corporations that have taken tax incentives from the financially strapped state in a speech to a prominent Chicago business group.

Inside Penny Pritzker's portfolio: How a billionaire invests 5/19/2013
Commerce secretary nominee discloses her financial holdings How do the wealthy stay wealthy? The mandatory financial disclosure released last week by commerce secretary nominee Penny Pritzker provides a rare look at an American billionaire's entire investment portfolio. Pritzker inherited much of her wealth, long stashed in hundreds of domestic trusts and at least one offshore family trust. But she also has built a reputation as a savvy executive who has managed and built companies within her f...

Harris: Google's Eric Schmidt on North Korea and technology's future 5/18/2013
Executive chairman, co-author stop in Chicago while promoting book Google's glasses may one day whisper in your ear an old acquaintance's name when you unexpectedly bump into them at a party.

JPMorgan board members targeted by shareholder advisers 5/12/2013
Results of election to be announced May 21 JPMorgan Chase, one of the nation's largest banks, survived the financial crisis better than most — only to have the $6 billion "London Whale" trading loss last year expose embarrassing flaws in its accounting and risk controls.