Bill Ackman is an American hedge fund manager and philanthropist who has a net worth of $2.3 billion. Also known as William Ackman, he is best known as the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management LP (a hedge fund management company).
Ackman was raised in Chappaqua, New York, the son of Ronnie I. (née Posner) and Lawrence David Ackman, the chairman of a New York real estate financing firm, Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group. He is Ashkenazi Jewish. In 1988, he received a bachelor of arts degree magna cum laude in the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies from Harvard College. In 1992, he received an MBA from Harvard Business School.
In 1992, Bill Ackman founded the investment firm Gotham Partners, along with a fellow Harvard graduate. Gotham made small investments in public companies. In 2004, Ackman started Pershing Square Capital Management. In 2005, Pershing bought a significant share in the fast food chain, Wendy’s, and successfully pressured Wendy’s to sell its Tim Hortons doughnut chain. Wendy’s spun off Tim Hortons through an IPO in 2006 and raised $670 million for Wendy’s investors.
After Ackman sold his shares at a substantial profit, the stock price collapsed, raising criticism that the sale of Wendy’s fastest-growing unit left the company in a weaker market position. Ackman blamed the poor performance on their new CEO. Ackman’s funds went on to own stakes in Target Corporation, Borders Group and others. Ackman’s notorious battle with the MBIA (Municipal Bond Insurance Association), which began in 1992, was documented in a book written by Bloomberg News reporter Christine Richard called Confidence Game.
More recently BillAckman has earned headlines for his criticism of Herbalife. Ackman’s stance is that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme.
