Bill Ackman denies ‘misleading’ claim he ‘resents’ Harvard over his ‘unfortunate experience as a donor’: Hedge fund boss gave the school $10M in shares that the college sold off before they rocketed to $85M

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman has claimed he has a longstanding beef with Harvard over the sale of $85 million worth of stock he donated for $10 million, but denied this is the reason he is calling out his alma mater for anti-Semitism .

Ackman, 57, was responding to an article by The New York Times titled “Bill Ackman's Campaign Against Harvard Followed Years of Resentment,” which claims that his “long-held personal grudge” against the school is partly behind his campaign to Harvard President Claudine impeached Gay after her testimony in Congress about anti-Semitism on campus.

Ackman called the story's premise “completely false and misleading” as he took to social media to clarify the details behind one of the alleged grudges outlined by the Times.

“I have never harbored any grudge against Harvard. And now I have none,” he wrote. “The story gives the impression that my motivation for raising issues of anti-Semitism with Harvard and President Gay was due to past grievances. This is completely false and misleading.”

Ackman went on to explain that he donated the $10 million worth of stock when he was low on cash during a divorce and because his investment firm Pershing Square had “gone through a major drawdown.”

Harvard President Claudine Gay during the congressional hearing on anti-Semitism on campus

However, Ackman said he wanted to support the school when the opportunity arose to recruit famed economist Raj Chetty.

He wrote: “It was important to me that I could achieve our long-term plan to recruit him, despite my difficult personal circumstances at the time… I knew Harvard could find someone else's money, but I wanted to keep my promise make it happen. original plans for the Foundation of Human Behavior initiative.

“It was important enough to me that I agreed to give Harvard stock in a privately backed company that I expected would be worth many multiples of that value within a few years.

“My agreement with Harvard provided that if and when the company went public within a few years, if the shares were worth more than $15 million, I would have the right to allocate the excess realized value above $15 million to point to the Harvard-related initiative of my choice. In the event that the shares were worth less than $10 million, I promised to make up the difference with an additional donation to the university.”

But Ackman claims that when he called Harvard in January 2021, after learning that the shares were now worth $85 million, he discovered that Harvard had sold the shares in March 2020 at a huge discount of $10 million.

'I wasn't as happy as you would expect. To make matters worse, no one from HMC, the administration or even my development officer had the courtesy to apologize. I have not heard from anyone via email, phone or otherwise,” he added.

Ackman said then-Harvard President Larry Bacow eventually “apologized and promised to rectify the situation” — but never did so “despite Ackman's periodic reminders.”

He concluded: “To be clear, my advocacy for anti-Semitism, freedom of speech on campus, and my concerns about DEI at Harvard have absolutely nothing to do with my unfortunate experience as a donor to the University.

I am extremely grateful for the education I received at Harvard College and HBS. I'm just trying to make sure that current students and future students have the same opportunity to learn at Harvard that I did.”

The Times' article about Ackman came hours after The Harvard Corporation announced that Gay would keep her job despite calls for her resignation.

Ackman claimed that sources told him the school did not want to be seen as bowing to him after he wrote an open letter to the board demanding Gay's resignation.

The Harvard Corporation – the university's board of trustees – said in its statement: “Our extensive deliberations reaffirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and address the very serious societal challenges we face. to take.'

The administration acknowledged Gay's mistakes in dealing with anti-Semitism on campus, adding, “So many people have suffered enormous harm and pain as a result of Hamas' brutal terrorist attack, and the university's initial statement had an immediate, should be direct and unequivocal condemnation.

“Calls for genocide are despicable and contrary to basic human values. President Gay has apologized for the handling of her testimony in Congress and committed to redouble the University's fight against anti-Semitism.”

The Harvard Crimson was first to report that Gay would keep her job despite widespread calls for her to resign from the political and business worlds following her disastrous appearance on Capitol Hill last week, where she refused to say that calling for the genocide constituted intimidation on Jews.

The board continued, “During this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously support President Gay. At Harvard, we champion open discourse and academic freedom, and we are united in our strong belief that calls for violence against our students and disruptions to the classroom experience will not be tolerated.

“Harvard's mission is to advance knowledge, research and discoveries that will help address deep societal problems and promote constructive discourse, and we are confident that President Gay will lead Harvard forward toward accomplishing this critical work .'

Gay, the school's first Black president, was appointed to the post in July 2023. She sparked outrage at a congressional hearing last week after saying it depended on context whether calls for genocide of Jews at Harvard constituted harassment and broke the rules.

She was then forced to apologize after the hearing that cost Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania her job over a similar response.