T. D. Jakes | – T.D. Jakes interviews Mellody Hobson


Bishop T.D. Jakes interviews Co-CEO & President of Ariel Investments; Vice-Chair of Starbucks; Director at JPMorgan Chase, Mellody Hobson.

As Co-CEO of Ariel Investments, 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 patterns and 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. She previously 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 teens with high-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. 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 of the Investment 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.

Throughout his life, T.D. Jakes has connected diverse communities across socio-economic divides. With the launch of the T.D. Jakes Foundation, Chairman Jakes is harnessing decades of resources and connections to prepare people for success in the 21st-century workforce, lift underserved populations and connect corporations to new, highly skilled pools of talent amid increasing global competition.

The T.D. Jakes Foundation team is composed of successful business leaders who have worked tirelessly throughout their careers to create a culture of inclusion and expand access to opportunity.

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About The Author

T.D. Jakes Bishop TD Jakes is an influential and visionary spiritual leader. He is the founder and Senior Pastor of The Potter’s House, a multicultural, non-denominational church and humanitarian organization based in Dallas, TX, as well as a New York Times best-selling author, award-winning filmmaker, and host of the TD Jakes Show. Recognized as “America’s Best Preacher” by Time Magazine and “America’s Treasure” by Oprah Winfrey, Bishop TD Jakes has reached millions of people around the world through his 40-plus years of ministry.

Comment (44)

  1. Love her comment on ”Just Read.” That's a great way to be mentored. That's how I created my financial course, and currently writing detective novels featuring a black American woman raised in London and heads up a Scotland Yard unit.

  2. This was an incredible interview Bishop with Mellody. This is not the first time I have heard her speak. She is such an inspiration to me and to black women. I have knowledge of what she talks about and my work ethic is very similar to hers. I don’t care what you give me to do I am going to be the best at it. I love to challenge myself to see just how far I can strive! And always looking for a way to make more money especially when I was a single mother raising my son. I am now trying to invest in my retirement and my next phase in life. I am not happy with what I am doing at my job. My end has come. Waiting on direction from God on how to begin what he has placed in my spirit. Thank you for the time with Mellody! God bless you!

  3. Wow, Thank you for this interview and for introducing us to Mellody Hobson. Love her, and learnt so much. Bishop you are right, her articulation of profound truths is just wooooooo (for luck of better word). I have learnt a lot and thank you once again. God bless.

  4. I help people with personal finance. I was born into poverty, never knew my father, had three brothers close in age, and was raised by a single mom. The LORD helped me understand I could do far more with my life and did not have to continue living in poverty into adulthood.

    We became millionaires in our late forties and multi-millionaires not many years thereafter and retired from public servant jobs (government and university) at 55 years of age by following the steps below. We also help other people utilize the same pattern of good stewardship to free them from financial bondage and help them build wealth. We had gotten ourselves into $135,000 of debt and had a negative $35,000 net worth at the time we started finally making sense of life financially by paying attention to lessons learned. We employed the following process / system to move forward in a constructive way.

    1) We utilized a giving / saving / spending plan (budget) looking out over 6 months to a year (and more especially with the help of a computer) to budget our income and ensure our expenses were less than we earned each month. This showed us (a) whether we would have a surplus or deficit, (b) whether we needed to find additional income via second jobs or no cost / low cost entrepreneurial endeavors (which we did and continue to engage), and (c) which bill to put surplus funds toward to help eliminate them faster. We mostly used the debt snowball method of payment along the way.

    2) We tithed and gave to our local Church and gave additional donations to worthwhile charitable organizations to allow the heavenly supernatural floodgates to open over our finances so we had more than our human power working on our behalf.

    3) We maintained a small emergency fund until we paid off all non-mortgage debt ($1,000 or so).

    4) We became constructively debt-free within six years and totally debt-free (including mortgage within 12 years) and remain debt-free since then.

    5) We refuse to cosign for anybody else's debt.

    6) We built our emergency fund to $10,000+ after paying of all non-mortgage debt and now our surplus funds are enormous.

    7) Starting at about 28 years of age, we invested at least 10 percent of our gross in our retirement and Roth IRA accounts. In latter years our investment percentage was about 35% of gross income. We put our money mostly in no-load low-expense stock index mutual funds. We also diversify our investments in at least 7 or 8 different brokerages and funds.

    Now we help people follow a system that helps them gain the same type of benefits. Unfortunately, many people misinterpret the bible and are blind to the fact that its guidance helps people prosper economically. Scripture instructs us to work and engage entrepreneurial / investment endeavors and to (1) plan (including budget), (2) establish reasonable savings for emergencies, (3) eliminate debt, (4) refuse to cosign, (5) invest for wealth building, and (6) diversify assets (which generally provides multiple passive streams of income at some point in life).

    I hope this helps. May the LORD bless you richly as you seek His guidance, stop listening to the nay-sayers, and follow His plan into your purpose!

  5. I absolutely LOVE & Adore Mellody Hobson and have listened to just about everyone of her interviews. I must say that this one is the best one yet …. Bishop Jakes has a way of reaching deep into the Spirit and Soul and discretely gives permission for the interviewee to bare all w/ out their own control. It was so beautiful to see Mellody moved with not just her intellect but her emotions. Interview is Epic! Loved it! ❣️

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