Born and raised in America, Carl Icahn is a philanthropist, investor and an established businessperson. He founded American Real Estate Partners that later changed its name to Icahn Enterprises in New York.
Carl Icahn also chairs the board of management of Federal-Mogul. He made many gains in the 1980s from asset stripping and hostile takeover of American Airline. In 2017, he worked briefly as president Trump’s economic advisor.
In 2019, Carl Icahn was number 26 according to Forbes list of wealthiest people in the world with a net worth of $ 17 billion.
Education
Carl Icahn went to Far Rock Highway School and later joined Ivy League, Princeton University. He was a brilliant student who later joined School of Medicine at New York University but never completed and left to join the army.
Economic and Policy Views
Carl Icahn endorsed Trump during the electioneering period in 2016. He tried to drive change regarding corporate taxes and even announced PAC and promised to donate $150 million. When Trump was running for presidency and Icahn supported his ideologies, it was announced that Carl would assist Trump as an individual on matters economy, but he would not have a fixed job description.
Six months into working together in 2017, Carl left citing that he did not wish to interfere with the officer who was working in the regulatory affairs at the time. In February 2018, Carl sold a lot of his companies dealing in steel and ended up saving $ 6 million. This was at a time when Trump imposed a 25% tariff on steel imports.
Carl Icahn has contacted Gary Cohn and President Trump to discuss on alterations to the ethanol policy. He advised that, should they agree to adopt his proposal, CVR energy would redeem more than two hundred billion annually. CVR energy is a company in the U.S that is largely owned by Carl Icahn.
Philanthropy and Wealth
Carl Icahn has a stadium and a Center for Science named after him. Icahn Scholar program sponsors supplies, tuition and accommodation fees for 10 students for four years. This is about half a million dollars per student.
Carl Icahn has also made a great contribution in Princeton where he schooled, by funding a genomics laboratory. He has also helped with several developments at Mount Sinai Hospital and as a result, the hospital medicine school has been renamed to bear his name.
Icahn has a Children Rescue fund that built a giant structure that would be home for single women with children as well as homeless families. There is Icahn house west and east so far in New York and they are both for destitute people.
In 2016, the US veterans received $1million in donation from Carl Icahn. This was a fundraiser done by Carl and President Donald Trump.
Giving Pledge
This is a pledge that was initiated by Warren Buffet, Gates and the founder of Facebook. Carl Icahn joined it in 2010 and assured to donate more than half of his wealth. However, he has not given the names of the people or organizations who would receive these gifts.
Family life
Carl Icahn and Liba Trejbal got married in 1979. Their children are, Michelle Celia Icahn and Brett Icahn. Rick Schnall is Carl’s nephew.
In 1999, they got divorced and had an arrangement where Carl would send Liba money. They had signed a prenuptial agreement before their marriage but after it was dissolved, Liba refused Icahn’s offer of one and a half million dollars a year since Carl was worth billions. They later agreed at an unspecified amount.
Gail Golden is Carl Icahn’s current spouse and they got married in 1999. Gail had been his broker and assistant for a long period. She had been married before and had two children.
Awards
Icahn has not only been hardworking but smart and this has earned him a couple of awards. He was awarded man of the year award in 1990 and the Starlight Foundation Award. In 2001, Carl Icahn was honored as Guardian Angel man of the year.
He was also recognized for his work with Charter schools by the Center for Educational Innovation – Public Education Association in 2004. Carl’s exceptional contributions in the education industry made him receive the Effecting change award from 100 Women in Hedge Funds in 2006.
Technology Interests
Carl Icahn has also had interest in the technology industry. At Mentor Graphics, he had a stake of 6.9% in May 2010 and added this to 14% in the same year. In the following year, despite the struggles he faced from other competitors, he bought the company at $ 1.86 billion.
Icahn has 10% ownership of Netflix acquired in 2012.
Forbes featured Carl Icahn among the highest earning hedge fund managers in 2013. In April 2013, he acquired 9.2% ownership in Nuance Communications. There was a deal that the CEO wanted to sell out DELL and halfway down the plan, it looked like this was going to be revoked. It was heard that Icahn had interest in the company and was ready to buy but he got very disappointed when he learnt the bid would not happen, that he sued the company.
Carl Icahn also has shares in Apple and in October 2013, they were 4.7 million. During the same time, he got 61 million others in Talisman Energy. In the same month, he traded half of his shares in Netflix for a margin of $800 million.