William Albert Ackman born May 11, is an American billionaire hedge fund manager who is the founder and chief executive officer of Pershing Square Capital Management , a hedge fund management company.
As of , he is one of the largest donors to Planned Parenthood. A longtime donor to Democratic candidates and organizations, Ackman endorsed former President Donald Trump in the United States presidential election. Ackman has expressed public support for Israel's actions in the IsraelโHamas war and has demanded the publication of the names of Harvard students involved in signing a letter condemning statements from Israeli officials.
In , he received a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude in social studies from Harvard College. He argued that MBIA was legally restricted from trading billions of dollars of credit default swap protection that it had sold against various mortgage-backed collateralized debt obligations , and was using a second corporation, LaCrosse Financial Products, which MBIA described as an "orphaned transformer". Ackman bought credit default swaps against MBIA corporate debt and sold them for a large profit during the financial crisis of โ Icahn refused to pay.
Ackman sued. In Pershing started buying J. Penney's stock. In August , the two-year campaign to transform the department store came to an abrupt end when Ackman stepped down from the board following a disagreement with fellow board members.
It has been estimated that the total cost of the position, including direct stock purchases and 9. Ackman was chairman of Howard Hughes Holdings , one of Pershing's longest-held investment, from until , when he stepped down from its board.
