Bill Ackman says he was never on ‘do not hire list’ after controversial Harvard letter
Hedge fund titan Bill Ackman rejected claims that he had created a “do not hire list” of Harvard students who signed a letter blaming Israel for the deadly Hamas attack on October 7.
Ackman, an early Wall Street mogul who urged Ivy League schools to publish the names of student leaders, was exposed by journalist Glenn Greenwald for allegedly trying to blacklist those students.
However, the head of Pershing Square Capital Management insisted he has not made any blanket demands to be banned from Wall Street in a heated exchange with Greenwald over X.
What happens is that there is no place for them in his company, he clarified.
“I have never compiled a ‘do not hire list,'” Ackman wrote on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter on Thursday.
“Rather, I simply posted that students who support the claim that Israel is ‘solely responsible’ for Hamas’s evil and barbaric acts are not people I would want to hire for any company we are involved in.”
Greenwald, the host of the Rumble-uploaded “System Update” news show, tweeted a clip of an interview with two Harvard students who he said were included on a “no-hire list compiled by billionaire hedge fund manager “Bill Ackman.”
During the interview, Amari Butler, a member of the student group African American Resistance Organization (AARO), who signed the controversial anti-Israel letter, also spoke on the “doxxing truck” that drove around the Harvard University campus to expose members of the Ivy League supposedly involved in the letter.
Butler said the billboard truck — deployed by news watchdog Accuracy in Media — and Ackman’s demand to blacklist students from Wall Street concerts were “shameful” attacks that caused students seem “racist.”
Butler also noted that “the vast majority of people who are being deceived and harassed… are black, Muslim, Arab or Palestinian students.”
Ackman in his post made it clear that he had “no connection to the trucks driving around the Harvard campus” and refuted Butler’s claims that race had anything to do with his motives.
“Despite the young woman’s statement to the contrary, not trying to recruit Hamas supporters does not make me a racist,” he wrote.
“Simply put, I don’t want any supporters of terrorism in our company. I and other of our employees support the Palestinians, but we do not support terrorism in any form, regardless of the cause it purports to represent. “It is unfortunate that certain students and others cannot distinguish between support for the Palestinians and support for Hamas.”
Greenwald responded to Ackman’s response to his Thursday night interview with Butler and fellow AARO member Kojo Acheampong by reinforcing the fact that “everything I said is true.”
“1) I didn’t say it had anything to do with the truck. 2) He repeatedly asked for a list of names of students who would not be hired. 3) Happy to have you to talk about it,” Greenwald wrote.
Ackman had pressured Harvard to publish lists of the names of members of the 34 groups that initially attached their names to the letter last month, justifying his desire in a post on character of the candidates you are considering for employment.”
“Would you hire someone who was a member of a school club and who issued a statement blaming their victims for KKK lynchings?” Ackman wrote in the post. “I do not think.”
At least a dozen business executives supported publication of the list, including Jonathan Newman, CEO of salad chain Sweetgreen; David Duel, CEO of healthcare services company EasyHealth; and Ale Resnik, CEO of rental housing startup Belong.
In the wake of uproar on Harvard’s campus over the divisive letter, which did not openly condemn Hamas, embattled Harvard President Claudine Gay created an advisory council to combat anti-Semitism.
in a update shared Thursday, Gay said the board and its members, made up of school administrators, faculty and students, “are looking to identify external partnerships that will allow Harvard to learn from others and work with others on our strategy.”
Gay also said the advisory board was also implementing “a robust education and training program for students, faculty and staff on anti-Semitism generally and at Harvard specifically,” and encouraged students to use an “anonymous hotline to report incidents.” of partiality.”
The Post has sought comment from Harvard and Ackman, and their hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management.
Ackman does not appear to believe that the advisory board is sufficient and would prefer that the school discipline students involved in anti-Israel messaging.
“The failure to discipline students who have bullied, assaulted, or otherwise abused Jewish students under the guise of free speech or an alleged requirement to wait for a police and FBI investigation to be completed is equally absurd,” the billionaire shared on X on Friday.
He also referenced the recent protests at MIT organized by the student group MIT Coalition Against Apartheid, which participated in a statement the day after the Hamas attacks of October 7, saying that it “holds the Israeli regime responsible for the entire violence that develops”.
“The failure of Harvard, MIT, and other universities to discipline protesters who violate their rules emboldens protesters to take more aggressive, disruptive, and anti-Semitic actions. This has created a climate of fear that is not conducive to university education,” added Ackman, married to Israeli-born MIT professor Neri Oxman.
