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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Lifestyle
Adam Gabbatt

‘A bully’: the billionaire who led calls for Claudine Gay’s Harvard exit

Bill Ackman in 2017. His campaign was seized upon by conservatives and the Republican party.
Bill Ackman in 2017. His campaign was seized upon by conservatives and the Republican party. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

Chief among the campaigners celebrating the resignation of Claudine Gay as president of Harvard University was a man who arguably did the most to push Gay, Harvard’s first Black president, out the door: Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge-fund manager and Harvard alumnus.

Ackman, who accused Gay of antisemitism and plagiarism, was a major player in what increasingly became a rightwing campaign against the Harvard president – who said many of the attacks against her were “fueled by racial animus”.

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