Billionaire Citadel founder and Harvard graduate Ken Griffin vowed his hedge fund would never hire student leaders from his alma mater who signed onto a letter blaming Israel for Hamas’ deadly attack, according to a report.
Griffin, who has donated more than half a billion dollars to the Ivy League school, was left furious by the administration’s initial tepid response to the carnage and its refusal to condemn the more than 30 student groups who had said “the Israeli regime” was “entirely responsible” for the Oct. 7 massacre, the New York Times reported over the weekend.
He joined the chorus of Wall Street executives – including fellow Harvard alum and hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman – who have said they will blacklist students who signed onto the letter issued by the Palestinian Solidarity Committee.
Griffin – whose Miami-based firm offers internships that pay $19,000 a month – limited his derision to the heads of the student groups and not individual members, he said.
These leaders “would have been considered adults one hundred years ago” and the decision to add their groups’ names to the letter was “unforgivable,” he told The Times.
“How do you end up in such a twisted place?”
In a statement to The Post on Monday, Griffin, 55, added, “It is despicable that leaders of these student groups did not immediately condemn the terrorist atrocities by Hamas but instead blamed Israel for them.”
“The members of these groups should swiftly denounce the hateful actions of their leadership and demand a change.”
The Post has sought comment from Harvard.
Three days after the attack, Griffin channeled his outrage at the school’s support for the student groups by contacting Penny Pritzker, a senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation, one of two boards that govern the school, according to the Times.
He reportedly called for Harvard president Claudine Gay to voice a more full-throated defense of Israel.
The following day, Gay issued a more forceful condemnation of the terror attacks, which killed more than 1,300 Israelis.
Gay, however, has pushed back on attempts to name students who signed the letter, asserting the school “embraces a commitment to free expression” in a video released Thursday night.
Her stance puts her at odds with Ackman.
“If you were managing a business, would you hire someone who blamed the despicable violent acts of a terrorist group on the victims?” Ackman wrote on X early Thursday. “I don’t think so.”
“Would you hire someone who was a member of a school club who issued a statement blaming lynchings by the KKK on their victims?” Ackman wrote. “I don’t think so.”
But Harvard alum and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers – who said he was “sickened” by the university’s initially slow response to the student letter – said Ackman was “getting a bit carried away” by demanding a blacklist, which he called “the stuff of Joe McCarthy.”
“This letter was issued six hours after the attacks,” Summers told Bloomberg News. “Many in the groups had no idea that there was going to be a letter … Some I’m sure were naive and stupid.”
“Now is not the time for demonizing students,” Summers said.
Griffin isn’t the only billionaire from the world of finance who has used his influence to demand that a university change its approach toward the Israel-Hamas war.
Elizabeth Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, issued a statement saying that the Philadelphia-based school “should have moved faster” in condemning Hamas after its assault on Israel last weekend.
Magill’s statement came after Marc Rowan, the CEO of private equity behemoth Apollo Global Management whose net worth is valued by Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $6.9 billion, demanded that donors cut off funds from UPenn and that Magill and the board of trustees chairperson be fired.
Rowan, a graduate of UPenn’s prestigious Wharton School, was reportedly outraged that the university declined to condemn a literary festival that featured pro-Palestinian speakers.
