Bill Ackman NET WORTH MONEY AND MORE
Net worth: 2 million dollars
Career / Profession: CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, Director of Canadian Pacific Railway
A multi-talented person, Bill Ackman is the steady horse in a the long race of the value investment market. He takes advantage in the downfall of the prices. He is the master in the field when it comes to making investments in delicate market situations. He is a manager of hedge fund. He is also the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management and Managing Director of Canadian Pacific Railway.
Early life
Bill Ackman was born on May 11, 1966 to mother, Ronnie I. (née Posner) and father, Lawrence David Ackman in the city of Chappaqua in New York. Lawrence David Ackman was the then chairman of a real estate finance firm with the name of Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group in New York. He was raised to follow Jewish faith and beliefs. He also has a Bachelor of Arts degree (1988) of magna cum laude from the famous Harvard College. He is also an MBA (1992) graduate from Harvard Business School.
Marital status: married
On July 10, 1994, Bill Ackman married Karen Ann Herskovitz. Karen is landscape architect. She is also one of the trustees in Human Rights Watch. She is also the board member in Friends of the High Line (they transformed an old railroad line into a beautiful park for the public). The couple has three children from the marriage.
Harsh criticism
Ackman had to face a very harsh criticism because of his theory of Herbalife. In 2012, he presented his new model called the “pyramid scheme” which was a multi-tier model in business. Under this market strategy, he started selling the share of his company, Pershing Square Capital Management directly without gaining any derivatives from it. When he promised to donate 50 % of his wealth to charity, it did not include the earnings obtained from the hedge fund. He made various statements to prove his decision was right. At the end it was concluded that the Herbalife’s share were worth 0 dollar. In an interview with CNBC he said, “ millions of people from the low income level hoping to become millionaires have been duped with this scheme and if they knew that to make hundred thousand dollars, what Herbalife calls the “millionaires team” there is a fraction of less than 1% no one will sign up for it.” In the next year, 2013, Bill announced that Herbalife has rised from 400 million dollars to 500 million dollars.
Philanthropy
Ackman is a man of generous nature. He is an active donator. He has worked for various causes and with different charitable organizations like Center for Jewish History. The organization works to promote the Jewish ideology. Bill personally invested 6.8 million dollars releasing the debt of 30 million dollars on the organization. He once said, “We want our children to know, not only their living relatives, but those representing past generations for a greater connection to their family and ancestral origin and heritage.” It was one of the three largest donation made to the organization, the other two were made by Bruce Berkowitz (founder of Fairholme Capital Management) and Joseph Steinberg( president of Leucadia National). His foundation also donated 1.1 million dollar to New York’s Innocence Project and Princeton’s Centurion Ministries. The organizations work to investigate the wrongly convicted people and works on bringing out the real truth. He has also signed The Giving Pledge which makes him give 50% of his income to the various charitable causes. The couple also was the founder of The Pershing Square Foundation, 2006. The foundation works in various fields like that of human rights, arts, economic development, healthcare, urban development and education. The organization has 160 million in forms of grants. Because of his generous and open hearted behavior, he is amongst the top 50 philanthropist according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Money matters
The net worth of Bill Ackman is mainly because of his different venture. Some of the details of which are given below:
- Gift to signature theatre worth 25 million dollars. This was given to promote the new initiative called the Signature Ticket Initiative.
- 10 million in grants to Human Rights Watch for 5 year duration to support new projects in Africa and to promote Women rights.
- $1.5-million grant to Social Finance for three-years to bring in force the social bonds in United States in association with Pershing Square as another founding partner in Social Finance US.
- 6.5 million Grants to One Acre Fund from 2008 in association with USIAD. The foundation is a NGO which works in countries like in Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda. It works for the very first tier of economy to help the farmers to gain permanent gains and reduce poverty and hunger
- 160,000 dollars an archaeological project named Temple Mount Sifting Project. The project is developed under Bar-Ilan University archaeologists under the supervision of Ir-David Foundation.
- 25 million dollars help to the public schooling dept. in Newark. The project is also funded by the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. They help the Newark to have playgrounds in the free land available in the city. Other major partners in the league were Greater Newark Housing Partnership, the Urban League of Essex County.
