Bill Ackman: Founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management
Business Owner · Hedge Funds & Investing
Bill Ackman founded Gotham Partners in 1992 and later Pershing Square Capital Management, becoming one of the best-known activist investors on Wall Street.
About Bill Ackman: Founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management
William Albert "Bill" Ackman (born May 11, 1966) is an American billionaire hedge fund manager, the founder and chief executive of Pershing Square Capital Management, an investment management company. He has been described as an activist investor, and as of April 2026 Bloomberg estimated his net worth at $8 billion. A long-time donor to Democratic candidates and organizations, he endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, and he has been an active supporter of Israel, particularly after the October 7 attacks, and a critic of the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses. Ackman was raised in Chappaqua, New York, the son of Ronnie Posner and Lawrence David Ackman, former chairman of the New York real estate financing firm Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group. He graduated from Horace Greeley High School in 1985 and from Harvard College magna cum laude in social studies in 1988, writing a senior thesis titled "Scaling the Ivy Wall: The Jewish and Asian American Experience in Harvard Admissions", and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1992. That year he founded the investment firm Gotham Partners with fellow Harvard graduate David P. Berkowitz, which made small investments in public companies, before starting Pershing Square. Sources: English Wikipedia (Bill Ackman, accessed September 2026).
Basic Information
Founder and CEO, Pershing Square Capital Management
Company Details
Pershing Square Capital Management
Hedge Funds, Activist Investing