William Ackman, Chairman and CEO

William Ackman serves as our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Ackman founded Pershing Square in 2003, and is principally responsible for its investment policies and implementation. Mr. Ackman has spent 28 years in the investment management industry. Prior to forming Pershing Square, he co-founded Gotham Partners Management Co., LLC, an investment adviser that managed public and private equity and hedge fund portfolios. Mr. Ackman is currently Chairman of the Board of the Howard Hughes Corporation, and a member of the Investment Advisory Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of NY. Mr. Ackman received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College, where he graduated magna cum laude, and received his Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Ben Hakim, CFO

Ben Hakim serves as our Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Hakim is a Partner at Pershing Square and joined the Investment Team in 2012. Mr. Hakim was previously a Senior Managing Director at The Blackstone Group, where he worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions group for 13 years. Mr. Hakim received his Bachelor of Science from Cornell University in 1997.

Our Independent Directors

Lisa Gersh co-founded Oxygen Media (“Oxygen”) in 1999 and remained its President and Chief Operating Officer until the company’s sale to NBC in 2007 for $925 million. Oxygen was the first-ever multi-platform brand and created content for women, by women, and reached 74 million homes at the time of its sale. Following the sale of Oxygen, Ms. Gersh joined NBC and spearheaded NBC’s acquisition of the Weather Channel, serving briefly as its interim Chief Executive Officer. Also at NBC, Ms. Gersh launched Education Nation, a transformative education initiative that established NBC as the media authority on education. In 2011, Ms. Gersh took over the operations of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (“Martha Stewart”), first as President and later as its Chief Executive Officer. During her tenure, Ms. Gersh rebranded Martha Stewart, materially reduced its operating expenses, and returned the company to profitability. In 2014, Ms. Gersh transformed Gwyneth Paltrow’s blog, Goop, Inc. (“Goop”), into the first contextual commerce brand. In the process of taking Goop from a collection of recommendations to a freestanding brand, Ms. Gersh oversaw, among other things, the launch of Goop’s e-commerce store, skincare and fashion lines, and created Goop’s pop-up retail strategy. In 2017, Ms. Gersh was named Chief Executive Officer of Alexander Wang, a global fashion brand based in New York City. A graduate of Rutgers Law School, Ms. Gersh began her career as a lawyer, first as a litigation associate at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, and then as a Partner at Friedman, Kaplan, Seiler & Adelman LLP, a boutique law firm specializing in complex litigation and commercial transactions, which Ms. Gersh co-founded, and which today has more than 50 lawyers. Currently, Ms. Gersh sits on the board of directors of Hasbro, Inc., where she chairs the Compensation Committee, and Establishment Labs Holdings Inc., where she chairs the Nomination and Governance Committee. She also serves on the board of directors of the Bail Project, Inc. and the Samsung Retail Advisory Board. Ms. Gersh previously served on the board of directors of comScore, Inc. We believe Ms. Gersh is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to her extensive operating experience, serving as an officer and board member of several companies, as well as her vast network of relationships.

Michael Ovitz co-founded Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in 1974 and served as its Chairman until 1995. Over that 20-year period, he grew the agency from a start-up organization to the world’s leading talent agency, representing more than 1,000 of the most notable actors, directors, musicians, screenwriters and other personalities in the entertainment industry including Martin Scorsese, Sean Connery, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Bill Murray, Dustin Hoffman, Steven Spielberg, David Letterman, Meryl Streep, Barbara Streisand, Michael Crichton and Michael Jackson. In his journey from the mailroom to media mogul, Mr. Ovitz launched the most powerful agency in the world (to date), sold three major Hollywood studios, executed all marketing and advertising for The Coca-Cola Company (including creating the Polar Bear Campaign) and was at the forefront of the digital revolution, making alliances with Intel Corporation and other early Silicon Valley companies. Mr. Ovitz also served as President of the Walt Disney Company, from October 1995 to January 1997. In 2010, Mr. Ovitz founded the venture capital fund Broad Beach Ventures LLC, a portfolio of over thirty companies. He has been a senior advisor to Palantir Technologies for over 10 years and has invested in and advised companies from startups to black swans. He was instrumental in the creation of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and frequently consults for Founders Fund, 8VC and many other firms. In 2018, Mr. Ovitz wrote and published his memoir Who Is Michael Ovitz?, which was on the long list for The Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award. Mr. Ovitz is a graduate of University of California, Los Angeles, and helped rebuild the UCLA Medical Center in 1997 while serving as its Chairman for over a decade. Mr. Ovitz is also a notable art collector and serves on The Board of Trustees at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. We believe Mr. Ovitz is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his extensive experience investing in and leading businesses, serving as an officer and board member of several companies, as well as his vast network of relationships.

Jacqueline D. Reses serves as the Head of Square Capital, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Square, Inc. (“Square”), which focuses on facilitating small business credit to businesses which have been locked out of traditional sources of capital. Ms. Reses expects to serve as the Executive Chairman of Square Financial Services, a conditionally approved FDIC-insured bank owned by Square. Prior to Square, Ms. Reses was the Chief Development Officer of Yahoo! Inc. and the head of the U.S. media group at Apax Partners Worldwide LLP, one of the largest global private equity firms. Ms. Reses also spent seven years at Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions and the principal investment area. She previously served on the board of directors of Alibaba Group Holdings Limited, China’s largest mobile commerce company and Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. Ms. Reses sits on the boards of directors of Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. III and a number of privately held companies, as well as the Economic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the Board of Directors of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and National Public Radio (NPR). Ms. Reses is also currently serving on California Governor Newsom’s Task Force for Business and Jobs Recovery. Ms. Reses received a bachelor’s degree in economics with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. We believe Ms. Reses is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to her extensive operating and investing experience, serving as an officer and board member of several companies, as well as her vast network of relationships.

Joseph S. Steinberg is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Jefferies Financial Group Inc., and, from January 1979 until March 1, 2013, served as President of Leucadia National Corporation (now Jefferies Financial Group Inc.). He has also been a director of Jefferies Group since 2008, Crimson Wine Group since 2013 and served as a director of HomeFed Corporation from August 1998 and Chairman of the Board from December 1999 until its acquisition by Jefferies Financial Group Inc. in 2019. Mr. Steinberg has previously served as a director of Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc., Mueller Industries, Inc., Fidelity & Guaranty Life and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. Mr. Steinberg has managerial and investing experience in a broad range of businesses through his more than 40 years as President and a director of Leucadia National Corporation and now as Chairman and a director of Jefferies Financial Group Inc. We believe Mr. Steinberg is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his extensive investing experience, serving as an officer and board member of several companies, as well as his vast network of relationships.