Top Philanthropic Donors: William and Karen Ackman

William Ackman, more commonly known as Bill Ackman, was born May 11, 1966 and is a Jewish-American hedge fund manager. He is the founder and CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management LP.  In December 2007 his funds owned a 10% stake in Target Corporation, valued at $4.2 billion through the purchase of stock and derivatives. His funds now own a 7.8% stake. In December 2010, his funds held a 38% stake in Borders Group and on December 6, 2010, Ackman indicated he would finance a buyout of Barnes & Noble for $900,000,000. He most recently won a shareholder proxy battle for Canadian Pacific Railway. Ackman is known to occasionally hire people outside of non-traditional finance backgrounds, for instance, his professionals have included a former fly fishing guide, a former tennis pro and "a man whom he met in a cab.

He married Karen Ann Herskovitz, a landscape architect, on July 10, 1994. She is a trustee of Human Rights Watch and serves on the board of Friends of the High Line, a charity that transformed a stretch of an old elevated railroad line in New York City into a public park.

Ackman is a signatory of The Giving Pledge committing himself to give away at least 50% of his wealth to charitable causes. 

Mr. Ackman and his wife, Karen, gave $58-million to the Pershing Square Foundation in 2010, which they created in 2006 to support education, human rights, social entrepreneurship, and other causes. They contributed an additional $1.3-million to 50 other nonprofits.

In 2010 the Pershing Square Foundation announced its largest pledge to date: $25-million to help improve the public-school system in Newark, N.J. Mr. Ackman has known the city’s mayor, Cory Booker, for years and has supported other city-improvement efforts such as cleaning up its parks. When Mr. Booker was seeking additional donors to match a $100-million pledge the Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg was making to Newark’s school system, the Ackmans’ foundation came forward with the biggest commitment yet, next to Mr. Zuckerberg’s.

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