Bill Ackman Addresses Years of Grievances in a 1,600-word Post on X, Denying Resentment Towards Harvard

As a result of a congressional hearing on antisemitism on university campuses that received widespread criticism, billionaire investor Bill Ackman has been at the forefront of demanding the resignation of Harvard president Claudine Gay.

According to a recent New York Times article published on Tuesday, Bill Ackman holds a long-standing resentment towards Harvard that spans several years.

The article revealed a previously undisclosed incident in which Bill Ackman had a disagreement with the school regarding the handling of a donation he made. This information was confirmed by two individuals familiar with the matter.

In response to the New York Times article, Ackman expressed his views in a 1,600-word post on X, previously known as Twitter. In the post, he outlined his grievances as a donor and clarified that he does not hold any resentment towards Harvard.

According to Ackman's post on X, in 2017 he donated $10 million worth of Coupang stock to Harvard with the intention of supporting the university's efforts to hire economist Raj Chetty. As per the agreement between Ackman and the university, if the value of the donated stock exceeded $15 million, he would allocate the surplus towards a Harvard project of his choosing. Conversely, if the value fell below $10 million, he would compensate for the difference.

In 2021 he discovered that Harvard had sold the Coupang stock back to the company for $10 million in 2020. This resulted in a missed opportunity as the stock could have potentially reached a value of $75 million.

"It made no economic sense whatsoever for Harvard to have sold," wrote Ackman.

At the time, Coupang was the biggest foreign IPO since Alibaba, raising $4.6 billion at a market cap of over $80 billion. Coupang's value has plunged over 60% since.

"All Harvard has to do is honor the agreement it had made with me," wrote Ackman. "That is, to grant me the right I bargained for: The right to allocate the $70m of excess proceeds to the Harvard-related initiative of my choice."

Ackman added that his recent actions are unrelated to his experience as a donor.

"To be extremely clear, my advocacy on behalf of antisemitism, free speech on campus, and my concerns with DEI at Harvard have absolutely nothing to do with my unfortunate experience as a donor to the University," wrote Ackman.

In addition to his grievances regarding the handling of his donation, Ackman, who is a former Harvard graduate, has made separate accusations against Gay. These accusations include allegations of research plagiarism and suggesting that she was hired based on diversity considerations.

Harvard, however, is standing behind its president.

On Tuesday, the university conducted an investigation and cleared Gay of the plagiarism charges. Additionally, a day prior to that announcement, Harvard stated that Gay would continue in her role as president. The announcement came after over 500 faculty members signed a letter to the school's governing body defending Gay.

Gay issued an apology for her remarks during the congressional hearing in an interview with the Harvard Crimson on Thursday. As of now, Harvard has not responded to the request for comment from Business Insider, which was sent outside of regular business hours.