A Day in The Life of a Money Maven
C H I C A G O, March 8 -- Proving the adage that time is money, Mellody Hobson gets up at 4:30 in the morning to begin her day as president of Ariel Capital Management, a Chicago-based investment management firm that handles $8 billion in assets.
With a busy schedule ahead of her, Hobson has simply found that there isn't much time to waste.
"I have to get up early in order to get everything done," said Hobson, who is also Good Morning America's financial contributor. There is no disputing that there is a method to her early morning madness.
At age 32, Hobson is now president of the same company where she bore the title of "intern," when she was still an undergraduate at Princeton University. Observers pegged Hobson as a mover and shaker 10 years ago, when her name first started surfacing on media lists of accomplished people.
In 1992, Ebony magazine recognized Hobson as one of the "30 Leaders of the Future." Working Woman magazine named Hobson in its "20 under 30"list of young leaders, and Crain's Chicago Business cited her as one of the city's young leaders in its annual "40 under 40" feature.
In 2001, came international kudos, with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, naming Hobson a "Global Leader of Tomorrow" and Fortune magazine recognizing her as one of 25 "Next-Generation Global Leaders."
How does she do it all? A Good Morning America crew followed Hobson on a typical day to find out.
'Perishables' Come First
First thing in the morning, Hobson heads to the office, where there are stacks of daily newspapers and magazines to read. With phone calls and e-mails to return, Hobson has her work cut out for her from the word go.
"We call reading material and phone calls perishable," Hobson said. "You have got to get them done before the day is over, or basically, they go bad."
As president, Hobson oversees the servicing of the firm's corporate, public and non-profit institutional clients as well as the marketing of the firm's four publicly traded mutual fund products: Ariel Fund, Ariel Appreciation Fund, Ariel Premier Growth Fund and Ariel Premier Bond Fund. She also has management responsibilities at the 52-employee firm, and is in charge of strategic planning.
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