Recent Speaker
Mellody Hobson
Co-CEO and President, Ariel Investments
Date: Wednesday, December 2
Time: 5 pm EST
Ideas for Tomorrow: Mellody Hobson
Ideas for Tomorrow is a virtual speaker series that provides a forum for the world’s most distinguished thinkers, speakers and personalities to engage in a dialogue with members of our community.
Watch NowBiography
As Co-CEO, Mellody is responsible for management, strategic planning and growth for all areas of Ariel Investments outside of research and portfolio management. Additionally, she serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ariel Investment Trust—the company’s publicly traded mutual funds. Prior to being named Co-CEO, Mellody spent nearly two decades as the firm’s President.
Outside of Ariel, Mellody is a nationally recognized voice on financial literacy. She has conducted extensive research on minority investing patternsand pens a column for Black Enterprise Magazine. Her leadership has also been invaluable to corporate boardrooms across the nation. She currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Starbucks Corporation; a director of JPMorgan Chase; and a director of Quibi, a short-form video content company. Shepreviously served as Chairman of the Board of DreamWorks Animation until the company’s sale and was also a long-standing board member of the Estée Lauder Companies.
Mellody’s community outreach includes her role as Chairman of After School Matters, a Chicago non-profit that provides area teenswithhigh-quality after school and summer programs. Additionally, she is vice chair of World Business Chicago; co-chair of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art; and a board member of the George Lucas Education Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies. She also serves on the board at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Mellody is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Rockefeller Foundation Board of Trustees, and serves on the executive committee oftheInvestment Company Institute.
Mellody earned her AB from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of International Relations and Public Policy.In 2019, she was awarded the University’s highest honor, the Woodrow Wilson Award, presented annually to a Princeton graduate whose career embodies a commitment to national service.She has also received honorary doctorate degrees from Howard University, Johns Hopkins University, St. Mary’s College, and the University of Southern California. In 2015, Time Magazine named her one of the “100 Most Influential People” in the world.
Upcoming Speakers
No upcoming speakers scheduled at this time.
Speaker Archives
Many thought leaders have participated in the Ideas for Tomorrow speaker series. Previous speakers are listed below along with links to their presentation videos where available.
Indra Nooyi
Former Chairman & CEO, PepsiCo
Tim Brown
Chair, IDEO
Valerie B. Jarrett
Former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama
Judy Faulkner
CEO and Founder, Epic
Mike DeWine
Ohio Governor
Brian Grazer
Academy Award-winning producer and Executive Chairman, Imagine Entertainment
David Feinberg, MD
Head of Google Health
Stephen A. Schwarzman
Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder, Blackstone
Kevin Love
NBA player for the Cleveland Cavaliers,
Founder of the Kevin Love Fund
Katie Couric
Journalist and Founder, Katie Couric Media
Dan Schulman
President and CEO, PayPal
David Rubenstein
Co-Founder & Co-Executive Chairman of The Carlyle Group
Larry J. Merlo
President and Chief Executive Officer, CVS Health
Franz Welser-Möst
Music Director
Kelvin Smith Family Endowed Chair
The Cleveland Orchestra
Steve Case & J.D. Vance
Steve Case: Chairman and CEO, Revolution LLC; Co-Founder, America Online; Chairman, The Case Foundation
J.D. Vance: Managing Partner, Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Revolution, LLC; Author, Hillbilly Elegy – Revolution, LLC
Keven Plank
CEO of Under Armour
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Best-selling author and "America's Historian-in-Chief"
Mindy Grossman
President and Chief Executive Officer, Director of Weight Watchers International, Inc.
General Stan McChrystal
Former Commander of U.S. and International Forces in Afghanistan; Author of Best-Sellers Team of Teams and My Share of the Task; Co-Founder of the McChrystal Group
John Doerr
Chairman, Kleiner Perkins
Ginni Rometty
Chairman, President and CEO of IBM
Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil
Oncologist and Author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene: An Intimate History
Satya Nadella
Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft
Sheryl Sandberg
Chief Operating Officer at Facebook
Angela Duckworth
Founder and Scientific Director of the Character Lab
Frederick W. Smith
Founder and CEO of FedEx Corporation
Adam Silver
National Basketball Association Commissioner
Dan Gilbert
Majority Owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers
Fred McLeod
Play by Play Announcer for the Cleveland Cavaliers
David Gergen
CNN Senior Political Analyst; Harvard Kennedy School Professor and Director
David Agus
New York Times Bestselling Author; Physician and Professor of Medicine and Engineering, University of Southern California
Jim Free
Director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's John H. Glenn Research Center
Jim Colins
Author and Lecturer
David Gregory
Author and Former Moderator of Meet the Press
Admiral Michael Rogers
Commander, U.S. Cyber Command; Director, National Security Agency/Chief, Cenpal Security Service
Marissa Mayer
Former President & CEO, Yahoo
Candice Bergen
Actress and Author
Jack and Suzy Welch
Executive Chairman of the Jack Welch Management Institute and Author
Lord Norman Foster
Founder of Foster + Partners, Architect
Thomas Friedman
Author & Journalist, The New York Times
Gentry Lee
Chief Engineer for the Solar System Exploration Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California
Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg
Former CEO of Google, Current Google's Executive Chairman; Google Advisor
Michael Govan
CEO and Walps Annenberg Director
Sebastian Thrun
Co-Founder and CEO, Udacity
Dr. Donald Berwick
Former Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Founding CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Mark Tercek
President and CEO, The Nature Conservancy
Arianna Huffington
Chair, President and Editor-in-Chief, Huffington Post Media Group
Karim Sadjadpour
Author and Middle East Expert
Daniel Yergin
Author and Authority on Energy, International Politics and Economics
Jack Dorsey
Creator, Co-Founder, and Executive Chairman of Twitter, Inc.; Co-Founder and CEO of Square, Inc.
Warren Buffet
Business Leader, Philanthropist
Vladimir Pozner
Russian Journalist and Author
John T. Chambers
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cisco
Kevin Johnson and Michelle Rhee
Mayor, City of Sacramento and CEO/Founder, StudentsFirst
Diane von Furstenberg
Fashion Designer
General Stanley A. McChrystal
Former commander of U.S. and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) Afghanistan; Former commander of the Premier Military Counter-Terrorism Force, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC)
Dr. Ben S. Bernanke
Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve System
General James L. Jones, USMC (Ret.)
National Security Advisor
Dr. Atul Gawande
Practicing Surgeon, Accomplished Writer, Teacher and Speaker
Victor L.L. Chu
Chairman of the First Eastern Investment Group
Dean Kamen
Inventor and Physicist
Craig Mundie
Chief Research and Strategy Officer at Microsoft Corp.
Michael Dell
Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Dell
H. Lee Scott, Jr.
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Walmart)
Tom Kelley
General Manager of IDEO
Michael E. Porter
Glen Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School
His Excellency Yousef Al Otaiba
Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United States of America and Mexico
Mike Milken
Philanthropist, Chairman of Milken Institute
Doris Kearns Goodwin
World-Renowned Historian
Stephen Kappes
Deputy Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Tom Brokaw
NBC News Special Correspondent
Glenn D. Lowry
Director of The Museum of Modern Art
Steven A. Burd
CEO of Safeway Inc.
Oprah Winfrey
Worldwide Media Leader, Philanthropist and Television Host
J. Craig Venter, PhD
Founder, Chairman and President of the J. Craig Venter Institute
John Glenn
Astronaut and Senator
William McDonough
World-Renowned Architect and Designer
Peter Lewis and Frank Gehry
Architects
Anne Mulcahy
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Xerox Corp.
Antonin Scalia
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
