Philanthropy Innovation Summit 2025 | Mainstage Program

As Co-CEO, Mellody Hobson is responsible for management, strategic planning and growth for all areas of Ariel outside of research and portfolio management. Additionally, she serves as chairman of the board of trustees of 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. In 2021, she co-founded Ariel Alternatives, LLC—a new enterprise offering a patient, focused and non-consensus approach to private equity investing. Its first fund, Project Black, has a mission to scale sustainable minority-owned business enterprises to serve as Tier 1 suppliers to Fortune 500 companies—driving economic growth and equality from the entry-level to the boardroom. Outside of Ariel, Mellody has been a leader in corporate boardrooms. She is the former chairman of Starbucks Corporation and its current lead independent director. Mellody also serves as a director of JPMorgan Chase. She was a long-standing board member of the Estée Lauder Companies and chairman of the board of DreamWorks Animation until the company’s sale in 2016.

Mellody is a well-recognized financial literacy advocate. She wrote a New York Times bestselling children’s book, Priceless Facts about Money, to demystify money for young readers. Her community outreach includes her role as chairman of After School Matters, a Chicago non-profit that provides area teens with high-quality after-school and summer programs. Mellody is also co-chair of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and a board member of Bloomberg Philanthropies, the George Lucas Educational Foundation, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Center for Strategic & International Studies. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Investment Company Institute, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and past chair of the Economic Club of Chicago.

Mellody earned her AB from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. In 2019, she was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Award, the university’s highest honor presented annually to a Princeton graduate whose career embodies a commitment to national service. Mellody 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.

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Distinguished economist and academic leader Jonathan Levin became Stanford University’s thirteenth president on August 1, 2024.

President Levin previously served as the Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean of Stanford Graduate School of Business. A leading economist, he is widely recognized for his scholarship in industrial organization and market design. 

Jonathan Levin was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut. He earned undergraduate degrees in English and Mathematics at Stanford in 1994, an M.Phil in Economics at Oxford University in 1996, and a PhD in Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999. After joining the Stanford faculty in 2000, Levin rose through the ranks to become the Holbrook Working Professor of Price Theory in the Department of Economics. He served as department chair from 2011 to 2014, a period of rising stature for Stanford economics.

Levin’s scholarly work has spanned topics ranging from incentive contracts to game theory, e-commerce, and health insurance. He has conducted influential research on the organization and design of markets, subprime lending, and empirical methods to study imperfect competition. 

In 2011, he received the John Bates Clark Medal as the economist under the age of 40 who has made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. Levin is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a former Guggenheim Fellow, and a recipient of department and school awards for distinguished teaching.

In September 2016, Levin became the tenth dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Under his leadership, Stanford GSB strengthened its position as the preeminent institution of management research and education. The school invested in new research programs, reimagined and significantly increased financial aid, expanded online and global programs, introduced classes for Stanford undergraduates, and developed ambitious collaborations focused on technology, sustainability, and other critical issues for business and society. 

From 2021 to 2025, Levin served as a member of President Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He is a Trustee of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. He has consulted widely in industry and government. He was part of the international expert group that designed the first vaccine Advance Market Commitment for pneumococcal disease and participated in the design of the FCC’s noted broadcast spectrum incentive auction.  

President Levin and his wife, Amy Levin, a practicing physician, have raised three children on the Stanford campus and enjoy spending as much time as possible adventuring in the outdoors.

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