Bill Ackman Biography: Net Worth, Wife, Age, Books, Children, Religion, Portfolio, Height

Biography

William Albert “Bill” Ackman (born May 11, 1966) is a renowned American billionaire hedge fund manager and activist investor.

He founded and serves as CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management in 2004, growing it into a firm managing around $20 billion in assets.

A Harvard graduate (BA magna cum laude and MBA), Ackman is known for high-profile campaigns, including bets against Herbalife and MBIA, investments in companies like Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and successful positions that have generated billions in returns.

He is also a prominent philanthropist through the Pershing Square Foundation and an active voice on social and business issues.

American hedge fund manager
Bill Ackman
Wiki Facts & About Data
Real Name:	William Albert Ackman
Stage Name:	Bill Ackman
Born:	11 May 1966 (age 59 years old)
Place of Birth:	New York, United States
Nationality:	American
Education:	Horace Greeley High School, Harvard College, Harvard Business School
Height:	191 cm
Parents:	Ronnie I. Ackman, Lawrence D. Ackman
Siblings:	Jeanne Ackman
Spouse:	Neri Oxman (m. 2019), Karen Ann Herskovitz (m. 1994–2017)
Girlfriend • Partner:	Not Dating
Children:	Eloise Ackman, Lucy Ackman, Liza Ackman
Occupation:	Hedge Fund Manager • Entrepreneur • Activist Investor
Net Worth:	$9.2 million-$9.4 billion (USD)

Early Life & Education

William Albert Ackman, known as Bill Ackman, was born on May 11, 1966, in Chappaqua, New York, an affluent suburb in Westchester County.

He is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and was raised in a Jewish family, identifying culturally and historically with Judaism (associated with the Reform movement).

Ackman grew up in a financially comfortable household that emphasized ethics, ambition, and business. His father, Lawrence David Ackman (1939–2022), was a prominent real estate executive and chairman of the Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group, a New York-based financing firm.

His mother, Ronnie I. Ackman (née Posner), came from a Jewish family and focused on homemaking. Ackman is the younger of two children; he has one older sibling, a sister, Jeanne Ackman.

For education, he attended Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua. He then went to Harvard College, graduating magna cum laude in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts in social studies. His senior thesis, “Scaling the Ivy Walls: The Jewish and Asian American Experience in Harvard Admissions,” examined historical admissions quotas for Jewish students in the 1920s compared to those for Asian Americans in the 1980s.

In 1992, he earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he began experimenting with stock investments that sparked his career in finance.

During his rise as an activist investor, Bill Ackman was tied to his Harvard background. These formative years in a supportive Jewish family, combined with elite education, laid the foundation for Ackman‘s bold approach to investing and activism.

Career

Bill Ackman’s career in finance began shortly after he completed his MBA at Harvard Business School in 1992. He first co-founded Gotham Partners, a hedge fund that invested in both public and private companies, and the fund grew quickly during its early years. However, the firm later became entangled in illiquid investments and regulatory scrutiny, complications that ultimately led to its closure in 2003.

Unfazed by the setback, Ackman launched Pershing Square Capital Management in 2004 with $54 million in seed capital, sourced largely from his own money and an investment from Leucadia National.

Pershing Square embraced a concentrated activist-investing model, taking sizable positions in companies it considered undervalued and pushing for operational and strategic changes to unlock shareholder value.

The firm earned early acclaim with a successful short campaign against bond insurer MBIA and a daring investment in General Growth Properties during the financial crisis, a move that yielded enormous returns. Over the years, Ackman became synonymous with high-profile activist battles.

Some were costly, such as the multi-year short against Herbalife, which resulted in a roughly $1 billion loss, and the ill-fated $4 billion investment in Valeant Pharmaceuticals, which collapsed amid legal and ethical controversies.

Others were major victories, including the turnaround at Chipotle Mexican Grill, where Ackman backed new leadership, and the proxy battle at Canadian Pacific Railway, which generated billions in value. Pershing Square also recorded significant gains through investments in Hilton Hotels.

In the 2020s, Ackman shifted toward a more focused portfolio built around high-conviction long-term positions in durable growth companies. Notable stakes included a 10% investment in Universal Music Group, which he acquired in 2021 and on whose board he served until 2025, as well as a steadily increasing ownership position in Howard Hughes Holdings. By 2025, Ackman controlled roughly 47% of the company and became its Executive Chairman.

Pershing Square manages about $20 billion in assets, bolstered by strong bets on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Alphabet, Uber, and Restaurant Brands International.

Social Media

• Wikipedia: Bill Ackman
• Facebook: Bill Ackman
• Twitter: Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) / X

Personal Life

Bill Ackman is 59 years old, born on May 11, 1966.

Ackman has been married twice. His first marriage was to landscape architect Karen Ann Herskovitz on July 10, 1994. The couple, who met during his early career, shared a long partnership focused on family and philanthropy (including co-founding the Pershing Square Foundation).

They divorced amicably in 2017 after 25 years, with a settlement reportedly in the hundreds of millions.

In 2018, Ackman began dating Neri Oxman, an acclaimed Israeli-American designer, architect, and former MIT professor known for her work in material ecology. They got engaged that year and married in a Jewish ceremony at Central Synagogue in New York in January 2019.

The couple welcomed a daughter later that spring and remain married, often collaborating on philanthropic efforts.

Ackman has four children. From his first marriage, he has three daughters: Eloise Ackman, Lucy Ackman, and Liza Ackman (all now adults, with careers in education, writing, and studies).

He shares one daughter (born 2019) with Neri Oxman. Ackman is protective of his children’s privacy and rarely shares details publicly.

He stands approximately 6 feet 3 inches (191 cm) tall, giving him a commanding physical presence that complements his outspoken personality in finance and public life.

Net Worth

Bill Ackman‘s net worth is estimated at approximately $9.2 million to $9.4 billion, according to Forbes and various financial reports.

His wealth more than doubled from about $4.3 billion at the start of 2025, primarily driven by exceptional gains at Pershing Square Capital Management.

Key contributors include massive returns from long-held positions in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (fueled by optimism over potential release from government conservatorship under the Donald Trump administration) and strong performance across a concentrated portfolio of durable-growth stocks.

Ackman‘s fortune is closely tied to his ownership stake in Pershing Square, which manages around $19–20 billion in assets and delivered outsized returns in 2025, outperforming major indices.