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Mellody’s Expertise

Mellody is General Manager and Head Cheerleader, responsible for management, strategic planning and growth for all areas of the firm. Additionally, she chairs the board of the company’s publicly traded mutual funds. Mellody joined Ariel in 1991 and spent nearly two decades as Ariel’s President before becoming Co-CEO. Mellody owns minority stakes in the NFL’s Denver Broncos, MLB’s Chicago White Sox and League One Volleyball. In 2021, she cofounded Ariel Alternatives, LLC, and helped launch its inaugural private equity fund, Project Black® to scale sustainable minority-owned businesses. Beyond Ariel, Mellody serves as a director of JPMorgan Chase and is the former chair of Starbucks Corporation and its current lead independent director. Mellody was a long-standing board member of the Estée Lauder Companies and former chair of the board of DreamWorks Animation, overseeing its sale in 2016. She is deeply committed to philanthropy and is a well-known advocate of financial literacy. In 2024, Mellody published a New York Times bestselling children’s book, Priceless Facts about Money. She earned her AB from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.