Pivot Points: Five Decisions Every Successful Leader Must Make

Chapter 4TEAM: John W. Rogers, Jr., Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Ariel Investments LLC

WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW HIM AND ABOUT HIS WORK

John Rogers, founder of Ariel Investments LLC, parlayed $500,000 into $21 billion in only two decades after founding the firm in 1983. When only 24 years old, John raised the initial investment capital from family and friends. By the time he was 30, he grew managed assets to $1 billion. With disciplined focus on business fundamentals and strict adherence to John’s investing principles, Ariel manages assets of individuals, corporations, university endowments, and public and private pension funds. Through 30 years of successes and setbacks—often dramatically outperforming major stock market indices but also taking a beating at the bottom of the Great Recession of 2008—Ariel Fund ranks in the top 20 percent for long-term performance since inception as of December 31, 2013. Although John’s business success is measured by return on investment and net asset value, what defines John’s leadership is his work for diversity and for financial literacy that were breakthroughs in the mutual fund industry. Ariel was, in 1983, the first minority-owned mutual fund company and ever since has been amongst the largest.

Success came early, yet was built on a solid foundation since 12-year-old John started getting dividend stocks from his father for birthdays and Christmas instead of games and clothes. By the time he was 24 years old, John had already studied annual ...