Mellody Hobson

By Noah Isackson/Chicago

Above all, Mellody Hobson is a defender of entrepreneurialism, and she thinks it should be for everyone. As president of $20 billion Ariel Capital Management, the largest African American-owned capital-management company in the world, Hobson believes entrepreneurial spirit can close the gap between rich and poor. And she has been aggressive about spreading that gospel, aiming "to make the stock market the subject of dinner-table conversation in the black community." At Ariel, Hobson launched the nation's first ongoing study of African-American investment behavior, calling attention to her hunch that blacks lag behind whites when it comes to investment, planning for retirement and putting money aside for college. The firm also started the Ariel Community Academy, an inner-city Chicago school that teaches elementary school students how to invest. Hobson takes her stump speech-- essentially a crash course in investment strategy--to PTA meetings, union halls and schools, and she is a financial consultant for ABC's Good Morning America. She agitates on corporate and civic boards, from the Chicago Public Library to Princeton University. "Mellody has a deep set of values about what's right and what's wrong," says former Senator Bill Bradley, a close friend. "She knows that she can have an impact because so few people say what they really feel." Indeed, Hobson had the guts to stand up to crusading New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer at a conference when she thought he was criticizing the mutual funds industry too harshly, and she has clashed with top Senators in testimony before Congress. She is worried that "rampant legislation" will stifle creativity and force smaller firms out of business. "What has made this industry so strong is the spirit of smaller firms," says Hobson, "and I would hate for that to be lost." --By Noah Isackson/Chicago