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Too many people are afraid to talk about money, says Ariel Capital Management's Mellody Hobson. She thinks it's time for business to bring the "M" word into dinner-table conversations—and teach everyone how to make it, save it, and invest it for the future. Money. It's not a dirty word, but far too many people think it is, says Mellody Hobson. "Capitalism is too often equated with being evil," says the 36-year-old president of Ariel Capital Management, a Chicago-based investment firm. "People often look at what we do and think of the line from the movie 'Wall Street,' when Michael Douglas says, 'Greed is good.' But that's not what money's about." Helping people understand and manage their money has become Hobson's passion, albeit an unexpected one. She grad- uated in 1991 with a degree in international relations from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of International Relations. It was only after a sopho- more-year internship at Ariel that Hobson fell in love with investment. She found a close mentor and friend in Ariel's CEO and founder, John Rogers, and realized that Ariel was where she wanted to work for the rest of her career. After she graduated, she worked with Ariel as a marketing representative before moving up the ranks first to vice president, then to senior vice president. In 2000, she assumed the role of president before she was 31 years old. Today, Ariel's "slow and steady wins the race" motto—symbol- ized by the tortoise it uses as its mascot—has helped it grow its clients' assets to more than $18 billion and become one of the largest minority-owned investment firms in the U.S. As a successful, young African American woman working as of Money a senior executive in the finance industry, Hobson has not gone unnoticed. She has been featured in Vogue and Working Woman and, in 2001, was named a Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. She has been singled out as one of "America's Best and Brightest" new leaders by Esquire magazine and as one of Fortune's 25 under-40 "Next- Generation Global Leaders." Last year, she was among The Wall Street Journal's "Top 50 Women to Watch." But Hobson quickly credits her success to a simple recipe that any business school graduate can follow: Work for people you respect, in a business you love, with a commitment to helping others. Hobson would like to put an end to deeply rooted negative How do you think having an education in international relations, rather than business, influenced your career? My work at theWoodrowWilson School was all about solv- ing problems on a large scale—world problems. Some of BizEd MAY/JUNE 2005 19 by Tricia Bisoux photo by Matthew Gilson perceptions surrounding money, which she sees reinforced by the media, corporate and Wall Street scandals, and the con- spicuous consumption often equated with wealth. To counter these perceptions, Hobson works to spread the message that investing is for everyone, at all socioeconomic levels. As a reg- ular financial contributor to the morning television program "Good Morning America," for instance, she educates millions about their finances. At Ariel, she supports and develops the company's strong commitment to community service programs, including the Ariel Community Academy, which teaches inner city children about money and investing when they are young, so that they can grow up to be financially savvy and secure adults. "I think money itself is generally not fully under- stood," Hobson says. "Money isn't more valuable than life or happiness, but it gives people freedom. And if you're free, you have choices. That's the best thing in the world." Hobson hopes to see more efforts by the business community to educate the public and open up a national discussion about investing. Only then, she says, will people at all economic levels understand—and benefit from—the power of money. You studied international relations and public policy at Princeton, but soon realized that investment was your true calling. What most attracted you to this career? I liked the idea that the business day in this industry isn't stat- ic—I deal with so many different constituents and situations. And I liked the fact that I'm helping to make people's lives better. The one great thing about our work is that we're help- ing people grow their money, which for them ultimately means a better retirement, a better house, a better inheritance to leave their children. I think that really is a noble calling.