John Rogers to Receive Top Alumni Award

Friday, November 09, 2007

Courtesy: Princeton University Communications

Wilson Award winner

Rogers is chairman, chief executive officer and chief investment officer of Ariel Capital Management, which he founded in 1983, just three years after graduating from Princeton.

Based in Rogers' hometown of Chicago, Ariel has grown into a widely recognized mutual fund company and money management firm with more than $15.5 billion in assets under management for corporate, public, union and nonprofit organizations. While building the company from two employees to more than 100, Rogers also has demonstrated a deep commitment to socially responsible investing and civic engagement.

Ariel Capital has teamed with community partners in Chicago to support a public charter school, the Ariel Community Academy, which emphasizes financial literacy in its curriculum. In the early 1990s, Rogers helped lead fundraising efforts for Project Vote, an effort to register African Americans in Chicago to vote, which was led by current U.S. Senator and presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

Rogers currently is vice chairman of the Chicago Urban League and a trustee of the University of Chicago. He has been a director or trustee of numerous civic, educational and arts organizations, including the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He also has served on several corporate boards.

Rogers, who majored in economics at Princeton and was captain of the varsity basketball team, has been active in University and alumni affairs. He served as a Princeton trustee from 1990 to 1994 and currently is a member of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni (ABPA), the Princeton Varsity Club board of directors and the Alumni Schools Committee. He is the first African American recipient of the Wilson Award.

"John Rogers is an ideal choice for this year's Woodrow Wilson Award. John's life truly embodies the spirit of Wilson's speech, 'Princeton in the Nation's Service,'" said Kenneth Bruce, a 1983 alumnus and ABPA co-president.

"While John was creating the largest black-owned mutual fund, he was also one of the most important and influential members of so many communities -- the Princeton alumni community, the Chicago community and the financial community," Bruce said. "John's leadership led to the Ariel Education Initiative, which promotes educational activities in economically disadvantaged areas, particularly in Chicago. He also created the Ariel-Schwab Black Investor Survey and Black Investor Summit to investigate and, based upon the results, promote investment in the black community."

"John's contribution to the black Princeton alumni community and the broader alumni community is invaluable," he said. "He employs and has employed many Princeton students and alumni at Ariel and the Ariel Education Initiative. Personally, he mentors and offers guidance to any number of students and alumni. And maybe most importantly, his business success and the exemplary way that he has approached some of society's problems serve as a role model for us all."

To read Princeton University's full release, please click here.