This week, on the sidelines of the Milken Institute Global Conference, 40 people attended a closed-door invitation-only panel to confront Pershing Square Capital Management CEO William "Bill" Ackman for his criticism of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Five attendees told Bloomberg, on the condition of anonymity due to the event's privacy, that among those who went to the Beverly Hills event Monday (May 6) were some of Wall Street's most senior non-white executives.

For about an hour, the audience and panelists like Teacher Retirement System of Texas chairperson Jarvis V. Hollingsworth, Guggenheim Investments president Dina DiLorenzo, and the chief of financial literacy nonprofit Operation Hope, John Hope Bryant, criticized the hedge fund boss for his anti-DEI stance.

Bryant told reporters in an interview after the event that the session was about "expanding the table and adding a chair" and the importance of forcefully arguing that diversity aided the economic growth of the United States without elaborating further.

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Corporate War on Woke

Ackman, who labeled DEI as an "inherently...racist and illegal movement," began his criticism of the initiatives after accusing Ivy League universities and higher education institutions, including his alma mater Harvard, of failing to respond to allegations of antisemitism on campus following Hamas's attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.

He mainly blamed DEI initiatives for using the "oppressor-oppressed" narrative on Jewish and Palestinian people, respectively.

Semafor business and finance editor Liz Hoffman wrote in her article that Ackman's popularity began when he criticized Harvard and MIT, where his wife was working. After speaking out against antisemitism on campus, Pershing Square's market value began increasing.

Recently, Ackman reportedly gave $10,000 in a GoFundMe campaign to throw a party for the members of Pi Kappa Phi, a fraternity from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. After Greek life members stopped pro-Palestinian protesters on campus from desecrating the US flag, the fundraiser was born.

When asked about the discussions at the panel, Ackman said in a statement Thursday (May 9) that he had already made his point clear in a lengthy post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, last January. The tweet was about his criticism of university presidents allowing antisemitism on their campuses, particularly former Harvard president Claudine Gay.

In addition to Ackman, other anti-DEI personalities, including Argentinian President Javier Milei and Citadel founder Ken Griffin, were present at the Milken conference.

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