“I don't know that we're ever going to have to run another proxy contest. I don't think you run a proxy contest against someone with 3 million Twitter followers. I think it ends badly for management.”
The Knowledge Project (Shane Parrish) · Ideas & Essays · September 2026
Parrish asked whether Ackman would ever be an activist again, after Ackman noted that his fund's last activist investment was in 2016. He says that as a major long-term shareholder with a public following, he can now get what he wants through dialogue, without a fight from outside the boardroom.
Transcript
I actually think that the Herbalife thing did do some reputational damage over time because they sort of called me out. Being a short sellerist, I would say the general populace just thinks that's like an evil, bad thing. And so I think having that be very much in the rearview mirror, the Herbalife short was like the end of 2012. That was a long time ago. Believe it or not, we've not made an activist investment for more than a decade. Wow. The last activist investment was in 2016. Would
you ever do it again?
I don't think we'd have to be an activist in any kind of traditional form. We will get quite involved in the companies we're involved in. And I guess if we were at a big stake in a company, we felt they were doing the wrong thing and we thought it was worth the energy. And I don't know that we're ever going to have to run another proxy contest. I don't think you run a proxy contest against someone with 3 million Twitter followers. I think it ends badly for management. And I think we have a sufficient amount of influence that we can get to the right answer with dialogue. That's what I think. So I don't think we have to be an activist. Activism is when you're outside the boardroom and you're not going to get invited in. Today, I think any company that we're a shareholder in, if we wanted board representation, they would give it to us because we're a major shareholder. We've got a good reputation. Reputation. We're a long-term investor. We're going to do the right thing for the business. We
always end with the same question, which is: what is success for you?
My definition of success for, you know, obviously Pershing Square is: you know, I want the investors. Obviously, you can measure it, have a very attractive, you know, life-changing, make a life-changing investment with us so that by the time they retire, they can do the things they want to do. They can pay for education for their kids. They can buy the house they want to retire in. You know, for me, my definition of, you know, 60 is like a moment for me. I celebrated my 60th birthday in May.
Wait, go deeper on that, a moment for you. What does that mean?
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