John W. Rogers Jr. had the confidence to make history at 24 years old because he was an investor at 12.
As AFROTECH™ previously told you, it would be his father, who made the decision to ensure Rogers received stocks for Christmas and his birthday instead of toys, which included $200 worth of shares from companies such as General Motors and Commonwealth Edison. His father also played a role in him connecting with Chicago, IL’s first African American stock brocker, Stacy Adams, who became a mentor and role model.
While both his parents worked as lawyers — his mother even made history as the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School — not to mention his grandfather, he never felt pressure to follow a similar footprint and was trusted to make his own decisions.
Ariel Investments
Rogers went on to pursue education at Princeton University, earning a degree in economics by 1980. He then spent two and a half years as a stock broker at William Blair and, coupled with his upbringing, he had the confidence to launch Ariel Investments, the first Black-owned mutual fund company in the United States.
“I was in a good position to hopefully have a creative approach to small cap value investing when we started in 1983. I talk all the time about how having the role models of dynamic African-American entrepreneurs in Chicago, who had started their companies at a young age, really also gave me the energy and the confidence to start — primarily George Johnson with Afro Sheen and Ultra Sheen and then John Johnson with Ebony and Jet. They were just such giants on the Chicago scene, and naturally I just couldn’t help but be impacted by their leadership,” Rogers said in an interview with AFROTECH™.
Rogers’ aspirations early on with Ariel Investments was to be viewed as a “true expert” in selecting small, undervalued securities and become the best small-cap value manager in the nation, creating mutual funds for individual investors while managing pension funds and endowments with separate accounts.
Ariel Investments has been tested several times including during the stock market crash in 1987. By that time, it had also launched its flagship Ariel Fund, which focused on small- and mid-cap companies.
“The true value investor buys more when everybody else is panicking and takes advantage of the bargain prices in a market downturn. So we did that in 1987, and that set us up for really good performance in 1988,” he mentioned.
Rogers received several accolades following this period, including Co Mutual Fund Manager of the Year by Sylvia Porter’s Personal Finance magazine and All-Star Mutual Fund Manager by USA TODAY. He later was listed among notable investors such as Warren Buffett, Sir John Templeton, and Ben Graham in a book titled “The World’s 99 Greatest Investors: The Secret of Success” (2013) by Magnus Angenfelt, according to information shared by the Obama Foundation.
As it relates to his position as a leader, this has been strengthened through strategic hiring. It would be his board and the hiring of Mellody Hobson in 1991 that would encourage Rogers to expand Ariel Investments’ vision, transitioning it from a mutual fund company to a diversified global asset management firm. Hobson also serves as
“You have to be diversified. My vision has changed from being a one-product specialist to realizing that we need to have a balance of products that work well together in parts of the marketplace where we can make a difference, add value, do a good job for our customers in these newer areas that we’ve added to our infrastructure,” he mentioned.
Moving forward with this decision has played a part in the company’s longevity in the midst of challenges that would follow, including the recent foreign tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. Just a few years ago, it was the obstacles faced during the wake of COVID-19 in 2020, as well as the financial crisis between 2007 and 2009.
“We went in and bought while everybody else was scared to death,” Rogers said regarding the 2007–2009 period. “Added to our positions as they got weaker and weaker, felt that we could buy them again at bargain prices. It would be great for our shareholders. And then when the market turned, we were No. 1 in our category for the next 10 years, which really set us up to be able to come out of the bottom with great performance and more reinforced confidence with our customers because we had now done it twice.”
Today, Ariel Investments manages $12.9 billion in assets, including $1.48 billion under its private equity subsidiary, Ariel Alternatives, which launched Project Black in 2023 for middle-market companies. Additionally, the Ariel Fund is managing $2.4 billion in assets as of March 31, 2025, per information on its website.
When considering the future of Ariel Investments, Rogers expresses his approval in passing on the torch to Hobson to serve as his successor. Over her 24-year tenure, he credits her for playing a hand in Ariel Investment’s international and global investment strategies and launching its emerging markets strategy in 2023 around Ariel Alternatives inception.
Furthermore, within the past five years, Hobson hired a new chief financial officer, head of HR, and new general counsel, all of which are people of color and primarily women. That, Rogers says, will be “a competitive advantage going forward.”
“They are already bringing on top teammates, hiring wonderful people to help us do these tough jobs during tough, tough times. This is not an easy time,” Rogers said. “But we’ve been able to just again build a world-class team because of Melody’s leadership and her ability to attract and attract these kinds of talented people.”
Advice To Future 50 Leaders
AFROTECH™ has selected Rogers as a Legacy Leader for exemplifying a characteristic required on its annual Future 50 list. The spotlight is given to disrupters across the categories of future makers, visionary founders, changemakers, corporate catalysts, and dynamic investors.
Rogers is recognized as a dynamic investor.
“You ought to surround yourself with world-class talent, both in the company as well as the company’s board. That’s the way to differentiate yourself, and I think for up-and-coming entrepreneurs, you’d be surprised, you’ll go out and ask people for help and support. People are eager to join an advisory board or join a board, even if you’re the little guys,” Rogers mentioned.
He added, “We’re the tiny guys compared to Fidelity and Vanguard. Our mutual fund company has board members like Eric Holder, the former attorney general, and Kim Le, who’s the chief investment officer at Columbia’s Endowment, both unicorns in their fields. They were willing to come and join our little mutual fund family and help us try to compete with the big guys. So I tell that to all the entrepreneurs. Surround yourself with great people.”
