MICHAEL O. HARRIS

Michael O. Harris is an executive, strategist, institution builder, and media host whose work spans leadership, governance, community development, organizational growth, and public life. For more than fifteen years, he has helped organizations navigate consequential periods of change—bringing structure to complexity, aligning people and resources, and turning ambitious ideas into disciplined execution.

He is the Founder and Managing Principal of Harris Beaumont Group, a connected enterprise built to inform, connect, strengthen, build, and serve. Through advisory work, media, publishing, and community-centered initiatives, Harris Beaumont Group brings together the different dimensions of his career around a common purpose: helping leaders, institutions, and communities move from possibility to lasting impact.

Harris’s leadership has developed across public service, financial services, nonprofit management, redevelopment, and civic institutions. His experience includes executive strategy, operational leadership, governance, financial stewardship, public-private partnerships, resource development, organizational continuity, and external affairs. Across those environments, he has become known for entering complex situations, determining what is required, and building the systems and relationships necessary for organizations to move forward responsibly.

His executive service includes leading the Memphis Metropolitan Land Bank Authority as President and Chief Executive Officer. During his tenure, the Authority completed three clean financial audits, substantially expanded its funding capacity, strengthened its operating and governance infrastructure, and advanced redevelopment initiatives requiring coordination among government agencies, financial institutions, developers, housing organizations, legal counsel, elected officials, and neighborhood stakeholders.

Harris also served as the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the Memphis Metropolitan Green Financial Corporation, helping establish a new institutional platform focused on energy efficiency, community resilience, green infrastructure, and reducing household energy burdens. His work in housing, land use, and redevelopment has extended beyond individual projects to the laws, policies, financing structures, and governing relationships that determine whether communities can grow with stability and dignity.

Before joining the Land Bank Authority, Harris served as Executive Director of the Greater Whitehaven Economic Redevelopment Corporation. There, he worked across neighborhood revitalization, business development, workforce opportunity, education, and community investment, helping secure more than $1 million in support for programs serving entrepreneurs, young people, families, and the broader Whitehaven community.

His earlier leadership includes corporate and government relations for Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-South and six years with First Horizon National Corporation. At First Horizon, his responsibilities included business continuity, records governance, disaster recovery, and operational risk within a regulated financial-services environment. That experience reinforced a principle that continues to shape his leadership: vision matters, but institutions endure only when they are supported by sound controls, clear responsibility, and disciplined operations.

Harris began his professional life in the United States Navy. He served from 2002 to 2007 as a Petty Officer Third Class and Surface Warfare-qualified sailor aboard the guided-missile frigate USS Curts. Military service strengthened his commitment to preparation, accountability, teamwork, and responsibility under pressure.

His civic record reflects an equally sustained commitment to service. Harris has held leadership roles with organizations working in youth development, accessibility, economic opportunity, education, housing, and community life. His service has included Vice President of 100 Black Men of Memphis, Board Secretary of Deaf Connect of the Mid-South, President of the Rotary Club of Whitehaven Memphis-South, Assistant Governor for Rotary District 6800, and membership on the Shelby County Retirement Board. He has also mentored young people and supported schools, families, and neighborhood institutions throughout Memphis.

His leadership has been recognized by the Memphis Business Journal, which named him to its Top 40 Under 40 class in 2021, and by John P. Freeman Optional School, which presented him with its Community Philanthropy Award in 2022. He completed the Leadership Memphis Executive Program in 2024.

Under the professional name Beau Harris, he extends this work into media, publishing, and public conversation. As a host, author, and network programmer, Beau explores leadership, cities, culture, relationships, opportunity, and the choices that shape individual and community life. His media work is grounded in the same convictions that guide his executive leadership: dignity before attention, truth before convenience, usefulness before vanity, and accountability before applause.

Michael and Beau represent complementary expressions of the same person. Michael is the executive, strategist, and institutional leader. Beau is the host, storyteller, and relational voice. Together, they reflect a life built around faith, family, community, and leadership—and a belief that serious work can be both disciplined and deeply human.

A native Memphian and father of three, Harris values time with family, cooking and hosting, travel, history, culture, and quiet evenings at home with his dog, Leo, and a good documentary. Those personal interests reflect the same curiosity and appreciation for people and places that inform his public work.

At the center of Harris’s life is a simple conviction: leadership is stewardship. Authority must be exercised responsibly. Institutions should create genuine opportunities. Progress should be measurable. And worthwhile leadership should leave people, organizations, and communities better positioned for what comes next.