The fund is managed by Charles K. Bobrinskoy, Vice Chairman and Head of the Investment Group at Ariel Investments. Ariel Investments is a global asset management firm founded in 1983 by John W. Rogers, Jr., who currently serves as chairman, co-CEO, and chief investment officer. Mellody Hobson has been president since 2000 and co-CEO since 2019, becoming the largest shareholder with 39.5% ownership. The firm specializes in small and mid-cap U.S.-based stocks and is recognized as the largest minority-owned investment firm, with 95% ownership held by employees and the board. John W. Rogers Jr. started investing at age 12 and established Ariel Investments in 1983. The company employs approximately 120 people, with 30 employees performing investment advisory functions.

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Ariel's focused value approach attempts to take advantage of infrequent but significant gaps between short-term price and long-term intrinsic value. We seek value in companies across all market capitalizations that are widely misunderstood, ignored and/or underfollowed. First, we find the businesses we want to own and then we patiently wait for the right entry price—one with an ample margin of safety. Maximizing shareholder returns is more than just math. We integrate all material issues, including sustainability-related factors, as part of the broader review of material risks and opportunities. Our contrarian views result from meticulous, fundamental bottom-up research. The fund pursues a focused value investment strategy that seeks to exploit significant but infrequent discrepancies between short-term market prices and the long-term intrinsic value of companies, emphasizing patience, independent contrarian thinking, risk mitigation through sustainability considerations, and long-term horizons.

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