Great Investors' Best Ideas Foundation

William A. Ackman

CEO and Portfolio Manager, Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P.

William Ackman is the CEO and Portfolio Manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., an SEC registered investment adviser founded in 2003. Pershing Square is a concentrated research-intensive fundamental value investor in long and occasionally short investments in the public markets.

Prior to forming Pershing Square, Mr. Ackman co-founded Gotham Partners Management Co., LLC, an investment adviser that managed public and private equity hedge fund portfolios. Prior to Gotham Partners, Mr. Ackman began his career in real estate investment banking at Ackman Brothers & Singer, Inc. Mr. Ackman received an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Harvard College.

Mr. Ackman’s board memberships include Chairman of The Howard Hughes Corporation (NYSE: HHC) and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX). He is a Trustee of the Pershing Square Foundation, a member of the Board of Trustees at The Rockefeller University and the Board of Dean’s Advisors of the Harvard Business School.

Charles T. Akre, Jr.

Managing Member, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, Akre Capital Management, LLC

Harold J. (Jay) Bowen, III

President and CIO, Bowen, Hanes & Company, Inc.

David Einhorn

President, Greenlight Capital, Inc.

Kathleen M. Gibson

President and CEO, Southwestern Medical Foundation

Kathleen Gibson is President and CEO of Southwestern Medical Foundation - a leading charitable corporation supporting advancement in medical education, medical research and medical care. The Foundation’s assets exceed $800 million, arrayed across more than 1,000 funds, creating a financial resource that enables continuing advances in health care to benefit the citizens of the community and the world beyond for years to come. During 1943, the Foundation formed Southwestern Medical College, now known as UT Southwestern, and remains its most significant philanthropic partner.

Prior to joining Southwestern Medical Foundation, Kathleen spent thirty years in financial services, holding a number of leadership positions within Citibank and Bank of America. Kathleen joined Citibank in 2006, as Head of Citibank Texas Commercial and President of Citibank Texas. In 2007, she was named President of the Central Division, Commercial Banking, with responsibility for the Central US Commercial Business. Prior to joining Citibank, Kathleen spent twenty-five years with Bank of America and its predecessor banks, where she held top leadership roles in Corporate Banking, Commercial Banking and Asset Management; also, serving as President, Bank of America-Dallas.

Ms. Gibson has been involved in community activities in Dallas and Texas for many years. She is Past Chair of the Board of The Association of Former Students at Texas A&M University, and a current member of the Board of the Texas A&M Foundation. Ms. Gibson is Membership and Strategy Chair on the Board of the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations and serves on the Boards of the SMU Tate Lecture Series and the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas. She is a member of the Advisory Boards of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance at UT Dallas and the DFW Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Program. Kathleen is a member of Charter 100, the International Women’s Forum – Dallas, Dallas Woman’s Club, Marianne Scruggs Garden Club, and the Junior League of Dallas.

She has been recognized in the Dallas Business Journal as a ‘Top 25 Industry Leader in Women in Business’, and by the Profiles in Diversity Journal in the 10th Annual Women Worth Watching edition. Kathleen is a recipient of Texas A&M’s Tyrus R. Timm Honor Registry Award, Women’s Legacy Award, and was honored to be selected as a 2014 Fish Camp Namesake. She serves on the Advisory Council for the Center for International Business Studies at Texas A&M and the Mays Business School Development Council. Her prior involvement in civic activities includes serving on the Dallas Regional Chamber Board and Executive Committee, and serving on the Boards of Children’s Medical Center, Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, The Dallas Opera, The Lamplighter School, Dallas Citizens Council, The City Club, and the Dallas 2012 Olympic Bid Committee.

Ms. Gibson earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M University, and attended school at SMU in Oxford and SMU in Russia. Kathleen and her husband, Robert, have two daughters, Catherine and Sarah.

Ken Hersh

President and Chief Executive Officer, George W. Bush Presidential Center

Kenneth A. Hersh, 54, is President and Chief Executive Officer of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, a Dallas-based non-partisan institution which houses the George W. Bush Library and Museum and the George W. Bush Institute. The Bush Center’s mission is to engage communities in the U.S. and around the world by developing leaders, advancing policy, and taking action to solve today’s most pressing challenges. Under his leadership and that of Executive Director, Holly Kuzmich, the Institute focuses its efforts on initiatives impacting economic growth, education reform, human freedom, global health, military service, and women’s empowerment.

He also serves as Co-Founder and Advisory Partner of NGP Energy Capital Management where he assists with the strategic direction of the firm. NGP is a premier private equity investment franchise in the natural resources industry managing over $15.8 billion of cumulative committed capital since inception in 1988. Through 2015, Mr. Hersh served as NGP’s Chief Executive Officer. From 1988 through 2015, under his leadership, NGP invested over $10 billion and achieved a 28-year gross IRR of 30% (net IRR of 19%), making it one of the nation’s leading investment firms during that period.

Mr. Hersh currently serves as a Senior Advisor and the Deputy Chief Investment Officer for The Carlyle Group’s natural resources division and sits on the Board of the Texas Rangers Baseball Club. In addition, Mr. Hersh serves on the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Council of the American Enterprise Institute, the Dallas Citizens Council, and the World Economic Forum where he has been a featured speaker at its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. He also sits on the Dean’s Council of the Harvard Kennedy School. Mr. Hersh served on the Advisory Council of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business from 2009 through 2015. In 2014, he was recognized as Master Entrepreneur of the Year for the Southwest Region by Ernst & Young during its Entrepreneur of the Year program.

Mr. Hersh has also been very involved in the nonprofit arena both nationally and locally on a personal basis and through the efforts of The Hersh Foundation, his family’s private foundation. He serves on the boards of the Communities Foundation of Texas, Baylor Health Care System Foundation, and the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues. From 1998 through 2015, Mr. Hersh served on the board of St. Mark’s School of Texas, where he held numerous positions including President from 2010 through 2012. In 2015, Mr. Hersh received the St. Mark’s School of Texas Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Prior to co-founding NGP, Mr. Hersh was employed by Morgan Stanley & Co. where he was a member of the firm’s energy group specializing in oil and gas financing and merger and acquisition transactions.

Mr. Hersh was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. After graduating from St. Mark’s, he attended Princeton University where he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Politics in 1985. In 1989, Mr. Hersh earned his M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business where he graduated as an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Mr. Hersh and his wife, Julie, reside in Dallas, Texas.

Van R. Hoisington

Lead Portfolio Manager for the Wasatch-Hoisington U.S. Treasury Fund

John Kleinheinz

Founder, Kleinheinz Capital Partners, Inc.

Nicholas A. Merrick

President, Mt. Vernon Investments, LP

Thomas A. Russo

Managing Member, Gardner Russo & Gardner, LLC

Thomas A. Russo joined Gardner Russo & Gardner LLC as a partner in 1989. In 2014 he became the Managing Member of the firm. Mr. Russo manages individual separate accounts and serves as the Managing Member of the General Partner to Semper Vic partnerships. Mr. Russo oversees more than $9 billion through separately managed accounts and Semper Vic partnerships. Gardner Russo & Gardner LLC is a registered investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and is not associated with any bank, security dealer or other third party.

Mr. Russo looks for companies with strong cash-flow characteristics, where large amounts of “free” cash flow are generated. (These industries typically have included food, beverage, tobacco, and advertising-supported media.) Portfolio companies tend to have strong balance sheets and a history of producing high rates of return on their assets. The challenge comes in finding these obviously desirable situations at reasonable or bargain prices.

Mr. Russo commits capital to leading global consumer products companies whose brands enjoy growing market shares in parts of the world undergoing economic growth and enjoying increasing political stability. He prefers companies with sufficient cash flows from existing operations, combined with balance-sheet strength, to allow investments to activate emerging markets. He backs rare management teams willing to invest to secure robust future returns even when such investments burden current reported profits. Mr. Russo believes that family-controlled companies are often uniquely well positioned to bear burdens on reported profits in pursuit of long-term gains. Accordingly, he often invests in public companies where founding families still retain control and significant investment exposure, to reduce management agency costs and to align owner interests.

Mr. Russo’s goal is one of an absolute return rather than a relative return, and he continues his long-term investment objective of compounding assets between 10 and 20 percent per year without great turnover, thereby realizing a minimum amount of realized gains and net investment income.

Thomas Russo is the Managing Member of the General Partner of Semper Vic Partners, L.P., and Semper Vic Partners (QP), L.P., limited partnerships whose combined investments are roughly $3 billion, along with overseeing substantially more funds through separate accounts for individuals, trusts, and endowments. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College (BA, 1977), and Stanford Business and Law Schools (JD/MBA, 1984). Memberships include Dean’s Advisory Council for Stanford Law School, Dartmouth College’s President’s Leadership Council, and California Bar Association. Mr. Russo is a charter member of the Advisory Board for the Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing at Columbia Business School. He serves on the boards of the Winston Churchill Foundation of the U.S., Facing History and Ourselves, and Storm King Art Center.

Andrew Wellington

Co-Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, Lyrical Asset Management

Jeanie Wyatt, CFA®

Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, South Texas Money Management, Ltd.

Jeanie Wyatt, CFA, founded South Texas Money Management (STMM) in December 2000. Barron's magazine named Ms. Wyatt to the Top Financial Advisors by State list (2017 and 2016), the Top 100 Women Financial Advisors list (June 2016 and 2015) and the Top 100 Independent Advisors list (2010, 2011, and 2012). She was named to wealthmanagement.com’s Top 10 Women-Owned RIAs list (2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016). Financial Times Magazine named her “Top 100 Women Financial Advisors” (2014) and the firm Top 300 RIAs (2014, 2015 and 2016). CNBC named STMM to their list of Top 100 Fee-Only Wealth Managers (2014 and 2015) and Forbes named the firm Top 100 Wealth Managers (2015 and 2016). The firm has been named on multiple occasions as one of the "Top Guns" by Informa Investment Solutions (IIS) under IIS Plan Sponsor Network (PSN) database in the peer group for Domestic All-Cap Core Equity Managers and was named “Top Guns of the Decade” for the ten years ended 12/31/10. Based in San Antonio, South Texas Money Management has additional offices in Austin, Corpus Christi, Houston, and Dallas.

Prior to founding STMM, Ms. Wyatt was Executive Vice President and head of Frost Investment Services (Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc.). She was responsible for the investment areas of nine trust departments around the state with approximately $13 billion in assets. She also managed the Trust Department's largest commingled equity fund for 15 years. Her total trust-banking career spanned 27 years with three bank holding companies around the state starting in 1976 at Corpus Christi National Bank. A Chartered Financial Analyst, she holds an honors degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Ms. Wyatt is past chairman of the CFA Institute's Public Awareness Committee and served on the Board of Governors of the CFA Institute, an international organization of over 100,000 investment professionals. Ms. Wyatt has been a special guest on Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser and was also a regular guest on Wallstreetweek.com. She has been interviewed by financial media, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Advisor Magazine, CNN, Fox Business news, AP newswire, and Thestreet.com. She has also published stock sector research that she directed.

Ms. Wyatt was appointed to the Employees Retirement System (ERS) of Texas Board in 2016 by House Speaker Joe Straus. She has also served on the State Pension Review Board, the state’s nine member mechanism for limited oversight of public retirement systems in Texas. She has also served on the National Endowment Fund Board of Trustees of the American Red Cross. In addition, she has served on the Pension Plan Board of Trustees of the University Health System in San Antonio and is currently a trustee of the Southwest Research Institute and on the Development Board of the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio. An Austin native, she currently serves as Vice Chair of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Advisory Board.