How Did I Get Here?

Mellody Hobson

President, Ariel Investments; chairman, DreamWorks Animation SKG
from
  • Education
  • St. Ignatius College Prep, Chicago, class of 1987
  • Princeton, class of 1991
  • Work Experience
  • 1991–93
    Client services and marketing, Ariel Investments
  • 1993–94
    Vice president for marketing, Ariel Investments
  • 1994–2000
    Senior VP, director of marketing, Ariel Investments
  • 2000–Present
    President, Ariel Investments
  • 2001–11
    Contributor, ABC’s Good Morning America
  • 2009–14
    Investor Advisory Committee member, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
  • 2012–Present
    Chairman, DreamWorks Animation SKG
  • 2013–Present
    Contributor, CBS News
  • Life Lessons
  • “Every game is won with patience.”
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  • “Make yourself indispensable. That way they can never fire you.”
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  • “I studied international relations and spent a lot of time in the library. I loved it. I was very interested in money, because we didn’t have a lot of it.”
  • “For years I traveled with our CEO, John Rogers, everywhere he went. I was pseudo chief of staff. He would hand me things off his desk and say, ‘Do it, fix it.’ The assignments got more important over time.”
  • Early in her career at Ariel
  • “Diane Sawyer read an article about me and called. I was in shock. She recognized that we don’t have African American women talking about money, and she was my advocate at ABC.”
  • With students from the teen apprentice program After School Matters, 2014
  • 1976
    “I got really good grades and did the extra credit. I was that kid. I wanted to be a television anchor.”
  • “I immediately knew I’d work here forever. I used to think, How many thousands of times will I walk through this door?”
  • With Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz (left) and former Senator Bill Bradley, 2005
  • Met husband George Lucas in 2006
    “We met at the Forstmann Little Conference in Aspen. I told him I was on the DreamWorks board, and we chatted about the movie business. The next year he said he was coming to Chicago to give a speech and would I be in town? I said I’d love to have dinner.”