William Albert Ackman (born May 11, 1966) is an American investor and hedge fund manager who is worth a billion dollars. Mr. Pershing is the founder and chief executive officer of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund management firm. His investment strategy distinguishes him as an activist investor.
Early Childhood and Educational Experiences
Ackman was raised in Chappaqua, New York, as the son of Ronnie I. (née Posner) and Lawrence David Ackman, the head of the Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group, a New York-based real estate financing corporation. Ackman graduated from Chappaqua High School in 1982.
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He is descended from Ashkenazi Jewish stock. Harvard College awarded him a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in Social Studies in 1988, earning him the title of magna cum laude. “Scaling the Ivy Wall: The Jewish and Asian American Experience in Harvard Admissions,” was the title of his master’s thesis. In 1992, he graduated with honors from Harvard Business School’s MBA program.
Observations About Personal Life
They have three children: Eloise Ackman, Lucy Ackman, and Liza Ackman. On July 10, 1994, Ackman tied the knot with landscape architect Karen Ann Herskovitz, and the couple has been married ever then.
The pair was rumored to have separated on December 22, 2016, according to media reports. Ackman was the owner of a Gulfstream G550 corporate jet as of 2013. Neri Oxman, Ackman’s long-term partner, proposed to him in 2018.
Their wedding took place in January 2019 at the Central Synagogue in Manhattan, and they welcomed their first child together in the spring of the following year.
Bill Ackman Net Worth: Varies According To Time
Bill Ackman is a hedge fund manager. Bill Ackman is an American hedge fund manager and philanthropist who has a net worth of $2.3 billion, according to Forbes magazine. He is also known by his given name, William Ackman, and is most known for being the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management LP, a hedge fund (a hedge fund management company).
William Ackman was born on May 11, 1966, in New York City. He is the son of Lawrence David Ackman, who is the head of Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group, a New York-based real estate financing organization.
Bill graduated with honors from Harvard College in 1988, earning a B.A. degree and the designation of magna cum laude. In 1992, he graduated with honors from Harvard Business School with an MBA in finance. Gotham Partners was created in 1992 by Bill Ackman and a fellow Harvard alumnus, who were both Harvard graduates at the time.
Gotham made a few tiny investments in publicly traded corporations. Pershing Square Capital Management was established by Ackman in 2004. Pershing Square Capital Management purchased a large stake in Wendy’s in 2005 and successfully persuaded Wendy’s to sell their Tim Hortons doughnut franchise the following year.
A public offering (IPO) of Wendy’s Tim Hortons in 2006 generated $670 million in revenue for Wendy’s shareholders. Following Ackman’s selling of his shares at a considerable profit, the stock price plummeted, prompting accusations that the sale of Wendy’s fastest-growing segment had put the firm in a weakened position in the marketplace.
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Ackman attributed the bad performance to the company’s new CEO. Ackman’s funds went on to acquire investments in companies such as Target Corporation, Borders Group, and other similar businesses.
The Confidence Game, a book written by Bloomberg News reporter Christine Richard, chronicles Ackman’s infamous battle with the MBIA (Municipal Bond Insurance Association), which began in 1992 and continued to the present day.
Investing in the Right Way
The activist investor Bill Ackman has stated that his most successful purchases have always been controversial and that his first rule of activist investing is to “make a big call that no one believes in.”
Ackman’s investing strategy has been commended and criticized by members of the United States government, heads of other hedge funds, various retail investors, and members of the general public are alike.
The shorting of MBIA’s bonds during the financial crisis of 2007–2008, his proxy struggle with Canadian Pacific Railway, and his positions in Target Corporation, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and Chipotle Mexican Grill are some of his most prominent market plays.
The hedge fund manager has a $1 billion short position in the nutrition company Herbalife from 2012 to 2018, which he has said is a pyramid scheme disguised as a multi-level marketing corporation. Betting on Zero, a documentary film on his life tells the story of his endeavors.
Career
When Ackman and fellow Harvard graduate David P. Berkowitz launched Gotham Partners in 1992, they were the first two people to do so.
In 1995, Ackman collaborated with the insurance and real estate business Leucadia National to bid for Rockefeller Center, and the firm made minor investments in public firms.
Despite the fact that they did not win the sale, the proposal sparked investor interest in Gotham, which resulted in the company amassing $500 million in assets under management three years later (AUM) By 2002, Gotham had become embroiled in a legal battle with a number of external shareholders who also possessed a stake in the firms in which Gotham had invested, and the company had lost.
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Despite the fact that New York state and federal authorities were investigating his trading actions at the time, Ackman conducted research on MBIA in order to challenge Standard & Poor’s AAA rating of the company’s bonds in 2002.
As part of his law firm’s response to a subpoena, he was charged fees for copying 725,000 pages of statements pertaining to the financial services company. MBIA’s structured finance business and its municipal bond insurance business, according to Ackman, should be separated from one another.
