Mellody Hobson Joins CSIS Board of Trustees
December 16, 2020
WASHINGTON, December 16, 2020: The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is pleased to announce that Mellody Hobson, co-CEO and president of Ariel Investments, LLC, has joined the CSIS Board of Trustees.
“It is an honor to welcome Mellody to our Board of Trustees,” said CSIS president and CEO John J. Hamre. “She is a world-class leader and tremendously dedicated to improving the lives of others. I look forward to the valuable insights she will bring to CSIS.”
As co-CEO, Hobson is responsible for management, strategic planning, and growth for all areas of Ariel Investments outside of research and portfolio management. She also serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ariel Investment Trust, the company’s publicly traded mutual funds. Prior to being named co-CEO, Hobson spent nearly two decades as the firm’s president.
Outside of Ariel, Hobson is a nationally recognized voice on financial literacy. She has conducted extensive research on minority investing patterns and pens a column for Black Enterprise magazine. Hobson’s community outreach includes her role as chairman of After School Matters, a Chicago nonprofit that provides area teens with high-quality afterschool and summer programs. In addition, she serves as vice chair of World Business Chicago and co-chair of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. She is also a board member of the George Lucas Education Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Bloomberg Philanthropies, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Investment Company Institute’s Executive Committee.
Hobson has extensive experience in corporate boardrooms, as well. She currently serves as vice chair of the Board of Starbucks Corporation and a director of JPMorgan Chase and previously served as chairman of the Board of DreamWorks Animation until the company’s sale and as a board member of the Estée Lauder Companies.
Hobson earned her A.B. from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of International Relations and Public Policy, now known as the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. In 2019, she was awarded the university’s highest honor for her commitment to national service. She was instrumental in establishing Hobson College, the first residential college at Princeton named for a Black woman, to be built on the site of what was formerly known as Wilson College. She has also received honorary doctorate degrees from Howard University, Johns Hopkins University, St. Mary’s College, and the University of Southern California. In 2015, Hobson was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.
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The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to advancing practical ideas to address the world’s greatest challenges.