Carl Icahn

Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American businessman and investor. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida. Icahn's business model is to take large stakes in companies that he believes will appreciate from changes to corporate policy; Icahn then pressures management to make the changes that he believes will benefit shareholders, and him. Widely regarded as one of the most successful hedge fund managers of all time and one of the greatest investors on Wall Street, he was one of the first activist shareholders and is credited with making that investment strategy mainstream for hedge funds.

In the 1980s, Icahn developed a reputation as a "corporate raider" after profiting from the hostile takeover and asset stripping of Trans World Airlines.

Icahn is on the Forbes 400 and has a net worth of approximately $3.8 billion to $7 billion.

Since 2011, Icahn no longer manages money for outside clients. Investors can still invest in Icahn Enterprises.

Icahn was born on February 16, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family. He was raised in the Far Rockaway neighborhood of Queens in New York City, where he attended Far Rockaway High School. His father, Michael Icahn, a "sworn atheist", was a cantor, and later a substitute teacher. His mother, Bella (née Schnall) also worked as a schoolteacher.

Icahn graduated from Princeton University in 1957 with an B.A. in philosophy after completing a senior thesis titled "The Problem of Formulating an Adequate Explication of the Empiricist Criterion of Meaning". He entered New York University School of Medicine, but dropped out after two years to join the Army Reserve.

In 1961, Icahn began his career as a stockbroker for Dreyfus Corporation. In 1963, he became an options manager for Tessel, Patrick & Co. and then he moved to Gruntal & Co.

In 1968, with $150,000 of his own money and a $400,000 investment from his uncle, M. Elliot Schnall, Icahn bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and formed Icahn & Co., which focused on risk arbitrage and options trading.

In 1978, in his first takeover attempt, he took a controlling stake in Tappan and forced the sale of the company to Electrolux, making a profit of $2.7 million, or doubling his investment. In 1979, he acquired Bayswater Realty & Capital Corporation. In 1983, he acquired ACF Industries and in 1985 he sold those shares to Phillips Petroleum, making a $50 million profit.

In 1985, by pooling his funds with investor funds and funds borrowed from banks, Icahn acquired 50% of Trans World Airlines, and he completely acquired the company in a leveraged buyout in 1988. Icahn systematically sold TWA's assets to repay money he owed, which was described as "asset stripping" and made him known as a "corporate raider". In 1991, he sold TWA's London routes to American Airlines for $445 million. Icahn made a $469 million profit, and left TWA with $540 million in debt. He formed lowestfare.com to sell TWA tickets and acquired portions of Global Leisure Travel from Ramy El-Batrawi.

In October 1986, Icahn launched an unsuccessful $8 billion hostile takeover for 89% of U.S. Steel; the bid was dropped in January 1987. In 1991, he sold his stake in the company for $1 billion, making a $200 million profit.

Icahn endorsed Donald Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election. He also announced the formation of a super PAC pledging $150 million to push for corporate tax reform, in particular of tax inversions, which occur when corporations move their headquarters from the U.S. to take advantage of lower tax rates elsewhere.

Upon becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Trump announced that he would nominate Icahn for United States Secretary of the Treasury. However, he instead nominated Steven Mnuchin.

On December 21, 2016, it was announced that Icahn would serve as special advisor to the president on regulatory reform under President Donald Trump and that Icahn would aid Trump in an "individual capacity" rather than as a federal employee, and that he would not have "specific duties" and therefore would not have to relinquish his business interests while serving as an advisor to Trump. Icahn stepped down from this role on August 18, 2017, citing a desire not to interfere with the work of Neomi Rao as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

In February 2018, Icahn avoided a $6 million loss by selling some of his holdings in a steel-price sensitive stock just days before the Trump administration announced a 25% tariff on steel imports.

When the President had Icahn interview Scott Pruitt during consideration of his nomination as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Icahn specifically asked Pruitt about his position on the EPA's Renewable Fuel Standard. Icahn spoke directly to President Trump and to Gary Cohn about his proposed changes to the ethanol rule. CVR Energy, in which Icahn has 82% ownership, would save $205.9 million a year if Icahn's proposal was adopted. The Sugar Land, Texas oil refinery benefited when President Trump made an exception to his regulation freeze to expand the tax advantage of master limited partnerships. CVR Energy's stock doubled after President Trump's election, increasing $455 million in value.

In the summer of 1978, Icahn, then 41 years old, met Liba Trejbal, a 28-year-old ballerina from the former Czechoslovakia. She became pregnant 8 months later and Icahn offered to marry her if she signed a prenuptial agreement. They were married in March 1979. In October 1993, Liba filed for divorce and sued to invalidate the prenuptial agreement, claiming she signed it under duress due to the pregnancy. The divorce was settled in July 1999. They have two children, Brett Icahn and Michelle Celia Icahn Nevin. His nephew is Rick Schnall.

In 1999, Icahn married his longtime assistant and former broker, Gail Golden. She has two children from a previous marriage. The couple separated in 2025.

Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island in New York City is named after him, as is the Carl C. Icahn Center for Science and Icahn Scholar Program at Choate Rosemary Hall, a prep school in Connecticut. This organization pays for tuition, room and board, books, and supplies for 10 students every year for four years (freshman–senior), an endowment valued at about $400,000 per annum.

Icahn made a substantial contribution to his alma mater, Princeton University, to fund a genomics laboratory which bears his name, the Carl C. Icahn Laboratory at the university's Institute for Integrated Genomics. He also made large contributions to Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, of which he is a trustee, which in return named a building the Icahn Medical Institute designed by Davis Brody Bond, and also, in 2013, renamed the Mount Sinai School of Medicine as the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The genomics institute led by Brian Brown, PhD, was renamed the Icahn Genomics Institute.

His foundation, the Children's Rescue Fund, built Icahn House in The Bronx, a 65-unit complex for homeless families consisting of single pregnant women and single women with children, and operates Icahn House East and Icahn House West, both of which are homeless shelters in New York City.

In 2010, Icahn joined the Giving Pledge list, pledging to give away more than half his fortune. Icahn is an activist investor, and has worked with the Humane Society of the United States in pushing McDonald's to achieve its pledge to end the sourcing of pork produced with gestation crates.

Oliver Stone used Icahn as the basis for the hostile, cutthroat capitalist character of Gordon Gekko, portrayed by Michael Douglas in his hit film Wall Street (1987). One of Icahn's shareholder meeting speeches provided the basis for Gekko's iconic "greed is good" speech.

Carl Icahn is featured in the 2022 Emmy-nominated HBO documentary Icahn: The Restless Billionaire directed by Bruce David Klein and produced by Atlas Media Corp.

Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1984,

Starlight Foundation – Founders Award & 1990 Man of the Year Award.

In 2004, he was honored by the Center for Educational Innovation – Public Education Association for his work with charter schools.

In 2006, he was honored with the 100 Women in Hedge Funds Effecting Change Award for his outstanding contributions to improving education.