Rogers Jr. is the only son of John W. Rogers Sr. and Jewel Lafontant born on 31st March 1958. His Dad, John W. Rogers Sr. was a military pilot with over 100 combat missions of service during World War II and served his country for 20 years. His mom, Jewel Lafontant is the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School and graduated with a degree in Law in 1946. She is a well known republican lawyer who nominated Richard Nixon, who won the Republican Party Presidential Nomination in 1960.
His parents divorced in 1961 and his mother died in 1997.
His great-grandfather was a big businessman and built the Stratford Hotel in Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921. The hotel was demolished during the Tulsa race massacre that took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921.
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Education
Rogers Jr attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools in 1976 and furthered his education at Princeton University where he bagged a first degree in Economics. Rogers was very active in school, he loved and played basketball. He played alongside Craig Robinson who currently is an American college basketball coach, basketball executive, and broadcaster. In 1979, he was team captain of the Ivy League co-champion Princeton Tigers men’s basketball team.
Although he was active in basketball in his university days, he was also up-to-date in the business world and never misses daily business news.
John W. Rogers Marriage
John W. Rogers married Desirée Glapion Rogers who is an American businesswoman, former White House Social Secretary for President Barack Obama’s office and former chief executive officer of Johnson Publishing Company (JPC). The union was blessed with a bright daughter, Victoria Rodgers before they divorced.
Mr Rogers went ahead and married Sharon R. Fairley on 28th December 2002 and they later divorced. When they got married, Sharon Fairley was the Executive Director of Pharmacia, a pharmaceutical company in the United States of America. Ms Sharon Fairley who is currently a Professor at Law was a Federal prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois for eight years. After the divorce, Sharon decided not to go into any other relationship.
John W. Rogers Career
John W. Rogers Jr is the Chairman, Co-CEO & Chief Investment Officer at Ariel Investments. He started his business in 1983 by raising funds of $180,000 from family and friends and the company became public on November 6, 1986. By 2004, he had accrued 73 employees and managed over $17Billion worth of assets for both individuals and corporate organisations.
John W. Rogers’ Career passion for investing began at age 12 when his father began giving him dividend-paying stocks for Christmas. His interest in equities grew when he studied at Princeton University and he worked as a stockbroker for William Blair & Company, LLC. for over two years.
John W. Rogers is a member of the Board of Directors of a number of companies including McDonald’s Corporation and Nike, Inc. and also serves as the vice-chair of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago.
W. Rogers played a key role in the Barack Obama presidential campaign. He is an ally of Obama and served as the co-chair of Obama’s Illinois finance committee.
John Rogers Age
Rogers Jnr is as of today is 66 years old.
John W. Rogers Recognition
The main basketball court at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools was named after Rogers. John Rogers is an alumnus of the school and played the game when he was a student there. The renovation was made during the winter break in 2011 and the court’s new title was adopted on 8th February 2012 when they played a home game against conference rival Northridge Prep.
John is the first African-American winner of a Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University for his service to the Princeton alumni community.
In 1994, Time Magazine named him as one of the 50 leaders under 40.
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