The chairman of the Harvard board of Penny Pritzker appears as a goal in the struggle of the Trump government with the university

Cnn
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The struggle between two of the best -known institutions of America – the Federal Government and Harvard University – becomes personally.

While President Donald Trump and Harvard President Alan Garber acted public resistance in the middle of the legal dispute over academic freedom and 2.2 billion US dollars of federal financing, hedgegefond -CEO Bill Ackman trained his criticism of the Harvard's top official:

“The mismanagement here,” said Ackman, a frequent critic of his Alma Mater, to CNBC, “is (with) Penny Pritzker.”

The 66 -year -old Pritzker, a former official of the democratic cabinet and one of the richest people in the world, became the Harvard Corporation leader in 2022, the board, who is responsible for the university's operation. She makes the role chairman of Harvard's chairman of the board, with Garber as the top administrative officer of the university, whom the board of directors exerts the authority to hire and fire.

Pritzker's term of office as a high-ranking scholarship holder of the company was largely defined by the topic, which now calls the core of the republican threats of the White House from the country's oldest and richest college: Harvard's handling with a pro-Palestinian camp and protests against the retalia and the retalization of Hamas at the position and the retalization of Hamas in the country of Hamas at the game of Israel and Israel.

Garber was an “exceptionally painful and disorienting time” in January 2024, and since then disciplinary and academic guidelines have been made, with the Task Forces, which examined anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim bias on the campus, only last week.

But Ackman wants more: “It is time for a change of leadership on Harvard's board,” he said this week.

When the heat of the Ivy League School in Boston and other American colleges is intensified-and freezing of Harvard's federal funds that probably stay on the spot until well into the summer-Pritzker will now have a hard fight for her prestigious Harvard role and the future of the university, from which she deserves your bachelor's degree in business 44 years ago.

Nobody would accuse Penny Pritzker to fear the spotlight.

After the great-granddaughter of a Ukrainian-Jewish immigrant worked as Barack Obama's trading secretary from 2013 to 2017 from 2013 to 2017, President Joe Bidens Point-Person became the economic recovery of Ukraine and used the position as a bullying pulpit to request coordinated help for the country against Russia against Russia.

Your public footprint as a singular senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation was easier. Although Pritzker often takes part in the town halls and public functions, she does not often grant far -reaching interviews about the university. One of the few that she gave was the public department of the university in December, weeks before Trump's second inauguration.

“Don't let us gloss over it – it was a painful and challenging year for Harvard, and I think it is important to see that even if we have started building for the future,” said Pritzker. “We have confronted ourselves in a tireless control over every aspect of the university of stakeholders inside and outside the institution.”

Harvard and Pritzker did not respond to inquiries about comments on Tuesday.

Pritzker is meanwhile one of the richest women in the world with a fortune of 4 billion US dollars, something in front of her younger brother, the democratic governor JB Pritzker from Illinois, something in front of Forbes. Her father Don was President of the Hyatt hotel chain of the family and transformed it into an international conglomerate, and in 2014 Penny Pritzker PSP partners founded a large portfolio of real estate, marketing and information technology companies.

The family remains the most powerful in Chicago, and Pritzker worked on the board of prominent companies in Chicago, including Wrigley, Transunion and Lasalle Bank.

Pritzkers worked and involved with Trump

The Pritzker family is also no stranger to Trump, with controversial connections that go back for decades.

In the 1970s, when Penny Pritzker's Uncle Jay ran the hyatt chain, it signed a contract with Trump to buy a failed hotel in New York and be able to rename it as a Grand Hyatt.

The partnership was determined in the next decade, and Trump sued the family in 1993 and claimed that it had exploited his financial battles.

“You attacked me when I was down,” said Trump this year the Chicago Tribune. “Now I'm doing well again and I'm my turn. I always said when I got back up for the first time, the Pritzkers would be the first people I would follow.”

After two years of legal distribution and complaints, Trump and Jay Pritzker settled in 1995, reported the New York Times.

Ackman's allegation this week was not the first time that Pritzker had a call to resign.

After the leaders of the search process, which led to Claudine Gay was appointed President of Harvard President at the end of 2022 – Pritzker said: “We are confident that Claudine will be a thoughtful, principal and inspiring president for all of Harvard.”

Until the beginning of 2024, Gay was called inside and outside the institution under the measurement of criticism after being called to testify to anti -Semitism on campus. When asked whether “calling the genocide of the Jews” would violate the rules of Harvard against bullying and harassment, Gay replied: “It can be depending on the context.”

Gay apologized later, but the setbacks of donors and separate plagiarism allegations ultimately forced them to step down.

When the controversy bubbled, Pritzker did not speak publicly and “silent was deafening,” Management expert and Harvard graduate Jeffrey Sonnenfeld told CNN at that time.

Pritzker later did not apologize for the work of the search committee, who chose Gay.

“We consulted extensively and looked at a wide range of candidates before we selected Claudine Gay, who was unanimously selected as a right choice at that time,” said Pritzker in her interview with Harvard's public relations work.

The emergence of Harvard as a leader in the struggle for academic independence has caused some critics to re -evaluate Pritzker.

“The decision of Harvard President Alan Garber, the demands of the Trump government and the strong leadership of Harvard's board, led by Chairman Penny Pritzker, rejected … is a turning point,” said a time-magazine, which was plagued by Sonnenfeld last month.

The Harvard Corporation-dessen members choose a replacement after their colleagues have worked for up to two years, Harvard Crimson, led by students, reported-is known for the confidentiality in his decision-making. As a private university, it does not have to hold any public meetings, so that the management of Pritzker has little about news publications and leaks.

At the beginning of the second Trump administration, the Harvard officials were in discussions with federal officials about combating anti -Semitism on campus, which the university recognized, is a legitimate concern.

After the White House sent a letter to Garber and Pritzker on April 11 with requirements from the school government to the elimination of diversity initiatives in return for federal money, “Pritzker wanted to fight”, reported the New York Times in the past month, citing people who were informed about the decision.

Then Garber published a sharply formulated public explanation on April 14 alone and partially said: “The university will not give up its independence or give up its constitutional rights.”

The Trump administration reacted angrily on the same day, since the government's joint task force against anti-Semitism against the freezing of $ 2.2 billion announced: “Today Harvard's statement is increasing the troubling claim that is endemic in the most prestigious universities and universities in our country that the federal investments do not take responsibility against the responsibility Responsibility against civil law laws. ”

Harvard's public rejection of Trump's demands, claimed Ackman this week, was a counter -productive step that led to an unnecessary legal struggle, since the university soon sued the government to restore its financing.

“It should have said:” President Trump, they scored some good points, “Ackman told CNBC and added:” He would like to do a deal. ”

Pritzker publicly recognized the criticism with which Harvard was faced with, but also argued that a greater supervision of the government was not the answer.

“I think in general, people generally don't want our federal government to head our universities and colleges,” she said at the SemaFor 2025 World Economy Summit.

Now people inside and outside of Harvard watch, whether Pritzker, an athlete who has often participated in triathlons can surpass a different round of violent criticism.