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Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin condemns Harvard’s ‘whiny snowflakes’

Stocktake: Ken Griffin donated $300m to Harvard last April but has become the latest billionaire to put the boot into Harvard University

Ken Griffin, founder and chief executive of Citadel, has criticised students at Harvard University. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

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Proinsias O'Mahony
Mon Feb 5 2024 - 06:00

Ken Griffin is the latest hedge fund billionaire to put the boot into Harvard University, saying he won’t be donating until it stops producing students who are “whiny snowflakes” that are “caught up in the rhetoric of oppressor and oppressee”.

Griffin, the most profitable hedge fund manager in history – his Citadel fund has generated $74 billion (€67.9 billion) for investors since 1990 – donated $300 million to Harvard last April, but recent tensions about anti-Semitism on campus and concerns about diversity initiatives have darkened the mood among Harvard’s billionaire donor community.

Last month, billionaire businessman and commodities mogul Len Bratavnick suspended donations. Scarcely a day passes without Bill Ackman, another hedge fund billionaire and former Harvard donor, calling for change at his alma mater.

[ Proinsias O'Mahony: Bill Ackman should keep his opinions to himself and stick to investing ]

The debate tends to focus on the rights and wrongs of what’s going on at Harvard, but another question arises: why give money in the first place to the world’s wealthiest university with an endowment fund of over $50 billion?

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Can’t philanthropic billionaires find better things to do with their money?

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