About Hitha Prabhakar
Hitha Prabhakar is a New York- based author, investigative reporter and retail analyst. She is the author of “Black Market Billions: How Organized Retail Crime Funds Terrorists” published by FT Press. She was a correspondent for Bloomberg Television covering retail and consumer spending. Before joining Bloomberg Television in 2011, Hitha was founder and principal of The Style File Group, a retail consulting firm based in New York City, where she served as an advisor to hedge funds and other clients with long term holdings in retail companies. She was also an on air contributor at CNBC. Prior to that, Hitha served as a retail reporter for Forbes Media, covering the luxury industry as well as men’s fashion. She has written for Time magazine, MSNBC.com, nymag.com, People magazine, People.com, ELLE India, Metro Newspapers, Nirvana Women, Inked magazine and Zink magazine.
She has had numerous television appearances as a retail and consumer spending expert for NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, MSNBC, Fox Business News, Fox News, Sky
News, Fox Radio Network, foxnews.com, Bravo, CNN, CBS, Univision, Reuters, E! Entertainment television and as the host of the Emmy winning New York based show,
Cool in Your Code, which airs on WNBC and WNYC TV. Most recently she was a coach for the MTV hit series, “MADE.”
Hitha has been featured in Vogue India, New York Times, Shape magazine, Glamour magazine, Marie Claire, Oprah magazine, Lucky magazine, Gotham, OK Magazine, Albuquerque Living, The Daily News, Metro, The Daily Mail, Style.com, Huffington Post and has been a guest on NPR lending her style knowledge on everything from where to shop to which diamonds will be on the red carpet during the Oscars. In 2009 photographer Scott Schuman profiled and photographed Hitha for the Burberry “Art of the Trench Campaign.”
After graduating from Smith College (including a year stint at the London School of Economics) with degrees in Philosophy and Economics, she joined Bear Stearns as
an analyst. Her plans to climb the corporate ladder were put on hold when she was asked to be a fashion correspondent for the radio station 102.7 FM in New York City
in September of 2003. After she spent a fun filled week backstage with Frederic Fekkai reporting on fashion and beauty trends, she decided to go to pursue her masters degree
at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and graduated in 2006. During graduate school Hitha rose through the ranks to be the first national style editor of Metro
newspapers.
She continued to build her style knowledge as a stylist and market editor at MTV where she styled numerous celebrities including Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Cornell, Death Cab
for Cutie and the Pussycat Dolls.
In addition to all things style and retail, Hitha’s favorite pastimes are running, biking, yoga, hanging out in the beauty section of Duane Reade and walking to the corner deli.
“Black Market Billions: How Organized Retail Crime Funds Terrorists” is her first book.