Listed as one of Barron’s 100 Most Influential Women in Finance for the fifth year in a row, Mellody Hobson, the co-C.E.O. and president of the first Black–owned mutual-fund company, Ariel Investments, and the lead independent director of Starbucks—not to mention a board member at JPMorgan Chase—is also a mom. She’s married to Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas, and the couple’s 11-year-old daughter, Everest, inspired Hobson to try something new: writing a children’s book. In Priceless Facts About Money, illustrator Caitlin Stevens depicts the author and her Ariel co-C.E.O., John W. Rogers Jr., as kids learning how money works. The book can make the elusive concept of financial literacy comprehensible to kids—and perhaps to some adults. To celebrate its publishing, Hobson shares her key components to the good life. —Carolina de Armas
APP: Starbucks.
BEDTIME: 8:00 P.M. (I wish!)
BIKE: SoulCycle.
BIRTHDAY: Dinner at home with my husband and daughter.
CHARACTER: Tyler Perry’s Madea.
CLOTHING STORE: Ikram in Chicago.
COLOR: Orange.
DATE: My daughter’s birthday.
DISGUISE:
A bucket hat on my husband. (The hair is the giveaway.)
DRIVE: Home from the airport.
DRIVER: Lewis Hamilton.
ESCAPE: Provence.
FIRST LADY: Michelle Obama.
FOOTBALL: Broncos.
FRIEND: Someone who has no agenda but your well-being.
HOTEL: Four Seasons Milan.
LAST MEAL: A plate of french fries.
MOVIE: Star Wars, of course!
NAME: Everest.
NEIGHBOR: Canada.
NONFICTION BOOK: Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, by Roger Lowenstein.
PAIR OF PANTS: Sweat.
PIECE OF ADVICE: “Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.”
RESTAURANT: RL, in Chicago.
PRESIDENT: Barack Obama.
STREET: Sesame.
SPORT: Any F1 race.
TELEVISION SERIES: Vikings, Black-ish, The Wire, and Game of Thrones.
THEME SONG TO YOUR LIFE: “I Will Survive,” by Gloria Gaynor.
Mellody’s Essentials
