"John Washingston Rogers Jr.(March 31, 1958)

Is an investment manager who founded Ariel Capital Management (now Ariel Investments, LLC),which is the United States'largest minority-run mutual fund firm,in 1983.He is chairman and CEO of the company.John served as the Board President Chicago Park District for six years in the 1990s.He was captain of the 1979-80 Ivy League co-champion Princeton Tigers men's basketball team.John has performed other services as board member to several prominent companies,as a leader of several organizations affiliated with his collegiate Alma mater,an as leader in youth education in his native Chicago.He has been honored with the Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University for the breadth and depth of his service to many organizations.John has been active in the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign and is leader of the 2009 inauguration committee.He has been a regular contributor to Forbes magazine for most for most of this decade.John was raised in Hyde Park area of Chicago's South Side,and graduated from the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools in 1976.At the age of 12 his father started giving him dividend-paying stocks.He went to college at Princeton University,where he used his free time to gleam market information at his local stock brokerage and where he was influenced by Burton Malikiel's Random Walk Down Wall Street.John was was a college basketball teammate of Craig Robinson,and he served as captain of the 1979-80 Ivy League co-champion Princeton Tigers men's basketball team.John had a habit of perusing business journals and calling his broker from stadium payphones.He credits Pete Carril,his basketball coach,as his greatest college influence because Carri stressed precision teamwork.John studied economics at Princeton.After graduating in 1980,he worked for William Blair & Company in Chicago.A few years later,with the financial backing of family and friends,he opened his own firm,starting with the Municipal Employees' Annuity & Benefit Fund of Chicago as his first account.He had a daughter Victoria, with his former wife Desiree Rogers.One of John great grandgrandfathers owned the Stratford Hotel in Greenwood Tulsa Oklahoma,known as The Black Wall Street.The Hotel was destroyed in the Tulsa Race Riot.He helped finance Before they die!,a documentary detailing some survivor accounts,and made a brief appearance in the film.John was was one of the hot stock pickers of the 1980s.He uses a value investing strategy,which has been a problem at times when growth stocks have been the better-performing investment class.His firm and its mutual funds have often been among the industry performance leaders and have on average outperformed the market.He eschews investing in new companies that have no track records.Rather than invest in AIDS-related stocks,he would prefer to invest in hospitals that treat AIDS victims.His typical holding period is four or five years rather than the 14-month period of the average mutual fund.Mellody Hobson serves as the president president of the company.The growth of his company has been steady.He founded the firm in July 1983 with $10,000which he turned into $23,170 by the end of February 1984.John had financial backing from his mother and other friends and relatives.The Ariel fund became public on November 6, 1986.In November 2000,he had 41,employees.In February 2002, the company had 51 employees and more than 120 institutional clients (including United Airlines,Chevron Texaco,and the California State Teachers' System),which grew to include institutional clients such as Wal Mart and Pepsi Co by April 2005.The company has over 100 employees as of 2008.In 2008,the company changed its name to Ariel Investments LLC.John also has served on the boards of directors of other publicly-traded Chicago-based corporations,including Exelon and Bally Total Fitness Corporation,where he was named lead director.John has a been a regular contributor to Forbes for many years and online archives of his commentaries go back as far as 2001.He provides regular personal fiancee commentaries in a column that has recently been appearing under the title "The Patient Investor."On February 23, 2008 he became the first African-American winner of a Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University for his service to the Princeton alumni community,the Chicago,community,and the financial community.In 1994,Time as one of its 50 leaders under 40.John is co-chairman of Jesse Jackson's annual Wall Street Project minority conference,chairman of the Chicago Urban League,a member of four corporate boards and was a leading campaigner for Princeton Basketball legend and United States Senator Bill Bradley's 2000 United States presidential campaign.Three of the boards he serve on are for Fortune 500 companies:Aon Corporation,Exelon Corporation and McDonald's.John is also a trustee of the University of Chicago.He has served numerous civic,educational and arts,organizations as a director or trustee,including the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition,the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.At Princeton,he was a trustee of the University from 1990 to 1994 and more recently has served as a member of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni (ABPA) and the Princeton Varsity Club board of directors,as well as the Alumni Schools Committee.In the early 1990s,John served as a fundraising leader in Project Voter registration efforts led by current United States President Barack Obama.He has been an advocate for greater diversity in upper-level corporate positions.John and his company were part of a network of community partners that supported the Ariel Community Academy,which emphasizes financial literacy in its curriculum.John donates both time and money to the academy:he has designed curricula and brings students to board meetings.As result of his money and time investment 80% of the eight-grade graduates from the academy are accepted at elite area high schools.He adopted a class of 40 sixth graders at a coast of $200,000 per year through the "I Have a Dream Foundation."He expected to pay for college for about 30 of the students.John was part of the inner circle of the Barack Obama presidential campaign.He is a long-time  Barack associate who serves as the co-chair of Barack Illinois finance committee and who has been a major fundraiser for Democratic Party candidates.He served along with Bill Daley,Pat Ryan,Penny Pritzker and Julianna Smoot on Barack Obama 2009 presidential inauguration committee.In June 2009,he became chairman of the University of Chicago Laboratory School's board.