Beating the Diversity Drum
Corporate executive and former Princeton University trustee Mellody Hobson is an example of someone having their feet planted in two worlds. She is president of Ariel Capital Management LLC, a mutual fund company that specializes in small- to medium-size companies and manages nearly $17 billion in assets. Hobson just completed her four-year term as a trustee. A 1991 Princeton alumna, she is a regular financial contributor to ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “World News Tonight.” Hobson speaks with Diverse about her role as a university trustee and how she tried to get the Ivy League institution to rethink some of the ways it has traditionally done business.
Mellody Hobson
Title: President, Ariel Capital Management LLC
Education: B.A., Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson
School of International Relations and Public Policy, 1991
DI: What led up to you being on the board?
MH: Princeton approached me; you don’t lobby for these things.
DI: Why did you agree to sit on the board?
MH: I loved the school, and I felt an obligation to give back.
