Starbucks Names Mellody Hobson Board Chairwoman -- 3rd Update
December 09 2020 - 4:33PM
Dow Jones News
By Heather Haddon
Starbucks Corp. appointed investor Mellody Hobson as its next
chairwoman, positioning the coffee chain to be among the biggest
U.S. companies with a Black person leading its board.
Seattle-based Starbucks said Wednesday that Ms. Hobson would
succeed Myron Ullman III as the leader of its board when he retires
in March. Ms. Hobson, co-chief executive at Ariel Investments LLC,
has been a member of the Starbucks board since 2005.
Ms. Hobson, 51 years old, is among the most prominent Black
investors in the U.S. Chicago-based Ariel Investments, a roughly
$13 billion value-investment firm, says it is the country's oldest
minority-run mutual-fund firm.
John Rogers Jr., Ariel's chairman and investment chief, is a
longtime director at McDonald's Corp. Mr. Rogers and Ms. Hobson are
both Democratic donors and supported former President Barack
Obama.
Many companies have pledged recently to increase diversity in
their workforces and boards. Nasdaq Inc. filed a proposal with the
Securities and Exchange Commission last week that would require
listed companies to have at least one woman on their boards, in
addition to a director who is a racial minority or one who
self-identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or
queer.
Around 8% of directors in the S&P 500 were Black as of the
end of August, according to corporate-governance-data firm Equilar
Inc. As of earlier this month, 149 companies in the S&P 500
didn't have a Black director, down from 180 in June, according to
recruiting firm Russell Reynolds Associates.
Ms. Hobson would be the only Black chairwoman of an S&P 500
company, according to Equilar.
Starbucks in October mandated antibias training for executives
and tied their compensation to increasing minority representation
in the company's workforce.
The Trump administration earlier that month discouraged
companies with federal contracts from issuing specific
diversity-related targets or conducting racial-sensitivity
training. Starbucks, a federal contractor, hasn't received any
federal inquiries about its diversity targets or training plans, a
spokesman said Wednesday.
Starbucks in November joined Mondelez International Inc. and
PepsiCo Inc. in signing onto the Board Diversity Action Alliance, a
group co-founded by Xerox Holdings Corp. former CEO Ursula Burns to
advocate for greater diversity on boards.
Ms. Hobson also serves as a director at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
and formerly was a member of the board at Estée Lauder Cos. Ms.
Hobson and her husband, filmmaker George Lucas, are involved in a
number of charities and business ventures.
Ms. Hobson grew up in Chicago, the youngest of six children in a
family she has said sometimes had trouble paying rent and bills.
She was the first in her family to graduate from college when she
received a bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1991.
"I loved school and I had a very singular focus," she said in a
December talk with the Economic Club of New York. "I realized my
brain was all I had."
She became an Ariel employee when she was 22. She said she was
still in her 20s when Mr. Rogers introduced her to Jack Bogle,
Vanguard Group's founder and index-fund pioneer, as a future
president of Ariel.
She was named president of Ariel in 2000 and co-CEO last
year.
Ms. Hobson has pushed for companies that Ariel invests in to
cast a wide net for talent. "It's very important for the board to
first recognize the need to be diverse, and that hopefully then
creates a ripple effect through the corporation," she said in
December.
Ms. Hobson was appointed independent vice chair of the board at
Starbucks in 2018. Howard Schultz, Starbucks's chairman emeritus,
said Ms. Hobson has advised the company for more than 20 years.
"I look forward to working with the board and talented
leadership team on accelerating our strategy, supporting our valued
partners, and continuing to create significant value for all of our
stakeholders," Ms. Hobson said in a statement.
Micah Maidenberg and Dawn Lim contributed to this article.
Write to Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 09, 2020 16:18 ET (21:18 GMT)
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