Archive · 9 Aug 2026
Bill Ackman's secret to retaining talent: stock and Hamptons summers
Bill Ackman runs a big money company called Pershing Square.
The company takes care of about 48 people who work there.
Everyone who works at Pershing Square owns lots of the company's stock, worth many millions of dollars — even the cleaners and front desk workers.
Ackman believes in looking after his people so they do not want to work anywhere else.
Workers come to the office five days a week for ten months of the year.
In July and August, the whole investment team moves to the Hamptons, a beach area, and works from homes.
The company also provides healthy food, a gym, and good health benefits.
Ackman says no worker has ever left in a way the company did not want.
He started Pershing Square in 2004 after an earlier company, Gotham Partners, shut down.
He thinks artificial intelligence could be the next big advantage for businesses.
Pershing Square, which manages about $35 billion with 48 employees, gives every worker ownership of millions of dollars in company stock.
Staff work from the office five days a week for 10 months a year; in July and August the investment team works from the Hamptons.
Ackman says the firm has experienced no 'undesired departure' and credits its culture of taking care of people.
Ackman co-founded Gotham Partners in 1992 and launched Pershing Square Capital Management in 2004, listing on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 2014.
The 60-year-old investor backs Jeff Bezos' view that AI-driven productivity could eventually create a shortage of workers.
- Who
- Bill Ackman, billionaire founder of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management
- What
- Pershing Square's talent-retention strategy of multi-million-dollar stock ownership for all 48 employees, plus flexible Hamptons summers
- When
- Recently, described by Ackman in a Fortune podcast (no specific date given)
- Where
- Pershing Square's office in New York, with the investment team working from the Hamptons in July and August
- Why
- To keep top-performing employees from leaving by making everyone feel like a major contributor to the firm's success
- Fund name
- Pershing Square Capital Management
- Assets under management
- About $35 billion
- Number of employees
- 48 (no undesired departures)
- Stock ownership
- Each employee owns multiple millions of dollars in company stock
- Office policy
- Five days a week in the office for 10 months a year
- Summer perk
- July-August: investment team works from the Hamptons
- Founded
- 2004 by Bill Ackman
- Stock exchange listing
- Amsterdam Stock Exchange (2014)