Mellody Hobson is the Co-CEO and President of Ariel Investments, a Chicago-based investment firm that manages over $14 billion in assets. She joined Ariel Investments as an intern soon after graduating from Princeton University in 1991, rising through the ranks to become a senior vice president and director of marketing before being named president in 2000. Ariel Investments is noted as one of the largest African American-owned money management and mutual fund companies in the U.S.