Mellody Hobson is co-CEO for Ariel Investments LLC and chair of the board of trustees of the Ariel Investment Trust. Prior to being named co-CEO, Hobson spent nearly two decades as the firm’s president. She has conducted extensive research on minority investing patterns and pens a column for Black Enterprise magazine. Hobson currently serves as vice chair of Starbucks Corp. and as a director of JPMorgan Chase and Quibi. She is chair of After School Matters; vice chair of World Business Chicago; cochair of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art; and a director of the George Lucas Education Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Hobson is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Rockefeller Foundation trustee, and on the executive committee of the Investment Company Institute. In 2015, Time named her one of the “100 Most Influential People” in the world.