Mellody Hobson is on a mission. Others may call her journey, something of a crusade; she has traveled far and wide spreading her message of greater economic freedoms and choices for all. She’s steadfastly pushed this broad vision through any medium she can find and to anyone who’ll listen.
Melody is a regular on ABC network’s Good Morning America program and a frequent feature in many magazines from Ebony to the Wall street Journal. As president of Ariel Investments, LLC, America’s biggest African American owned Mutual Funds Management Company, she’s got say in the matter.
Mellody Hobson on financial literacy
Mellody has made it passion of hers to educate the African American community as much as she can about the long term benefits of stocks and mutual funds investing. While a greater portion of the black community maybe more comfortable with a savings accounts than a stocks portfolio, she’s seeing a change.
The now history, Great Recession, may have even hampered her crusade somewhat. Every serious investor over the past two years have seen their holdings shrunk sizably; non-investors may have counted themselves lucky. Now with the recession in the past and Wallstreet’s historic uptick, Ms. Hobson’s load should be easier to carry, but bad memories linger, of course.
At the young age of 41, her steady climb to the top is not a surprise to anyone who may have known her as a child, where she worked extra hard in school. Her dream then was to attend either Harvard or Princeton. The two Ivy League schools courted her; she’d ultimately choose Princeton, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1991.
Hard work is in her blood, she’s the child of a single mother, who worked as a real-estate agent to put food on the table for her and her five other siblings. Ariel Investment’s corporate logo is the tortoise, an animal that symbolizes strategic patienc, Mellody’s got that in spades. She interned at her future employer for ten years before her meteoric rise as star funds manager.
Ms. Hobson’s not all about work though, she still keep the surfboard she used on a surfing holiday trip some years ago. She’s been seen at various high profile affairs with her long time boyfriend Star Wars creator, George Lucas.
Mellody has been quoted as saying, “My dream is of seeing black grandmothers in their bathing suits at the beach, retired comfortably. My dream is that the beach is their option.”The world’s just digging itself out from the worst economic meltdown in many decades, recovery will take time. Mellody is just passionate about her dreams enough to definitely make it come true.
