Ariana Rockefeller is a fashion designer, amateur show jumper, and great-great-granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil.
Early life
Ariana Rockefeller was born to David Rockefeller, Jr. and Diana Newell Rockefeller. Her hometown is Cambridge, Massachusetts, but she split most of her childhood between New York and Maine. She attended the Ethel Walker School, an all-girls boarding school in Connecticut. Rockefeller interned at the United Nations. She later graduated from Columbia University with an AB in Political Science in 2009.
Fashion and lifestyle business
Rockefeller launched her own fashion line in 2011. In 2014, she opened a pop-up shop in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. She added a line of handbags in 2015 after hiring handbag designer Bassam Ali.
Equestrian career
Rockefeller began riding horses when she was three years-old. She competed on the equestrian team in high school, during which time she took an interest in show jumping. She took a break from riding in college, and resumed by partaking in competitive show jumping in 2012. In 2015, Rockefeller placed fourth in the Hampton Classic.
Philanthropy
Rockefeller has served on the board of the nonprofit David Rockefeller Fund. Rockefeller supports the Humane Society of the United States. Rockefeller has chaired the New York Botanical Garden's Winter Ball for several years.She also continues her family tradition of involvement and interest in ancient Greek culture and archaeology.
In a 2016 interview on CBS This Morning, she spoke out against the #Exxonknew campaign that was started by members of the Rockefeller family, among them her cousin David Kaiser, son of Neva Goodwin Rockefeller, and distant relative, Valerie Rockefeller Wayne, daughter of former Senator Jay Rockefeller, revealing a sharp divide within the family over its legacy in the petroleum industry and Fossil fuel divestment. She also criticized the ongoing campaign to target ExxonMobil, a company that her family founded, as "deeply misguided" and "counterproductive" to Exxon’s ongoing good work in clean and renewable energy in a New York Times piece.
Personal life
On September 4, 2010, Rockefeller married entrepreneur Matthew Bucklin. It was reported by the New York Post on October 30th, 2019 that the couple have divorced, after nine years of marriage. The couple filed for divorce in April 2019. Her father served as the chair and remains a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation.Her sister, Camilla Rockefeller, a Columbia University graduate, is the chairwoman of David Rockefeller Fund, which focuses on criminal justice, arts, and environmental causes. Her aunts Abby Rockefeller is an American ecologist, Neva Goodwin a professor of sustainable development at Tufts University and a director of the Global Development and Environment Institute, Peggy Dulany and Eileen Rockefeller Growald both American philanthropists and businesswomen. Her uncle, Richard Rockefeller, was a family physician who practiced in Falmouth, Maine and passed away in 2014. Her paternal grandfather, David Rockefeller, was a billionaire businessman and the former chairman of Chase Bank from 1969 to 1981 as well as chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1970 to 1985. He was the youngest son of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and grandson of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller.
