Billionaire Bill Ackman and his wife, Neri Oxman, recently shelled out $400 million. They presented the whopping sum to fund a new nonprofit. What inspired their generous donation? According to Ackman, the answer involves his beloved 26-year-old daughter.
Outspoken and uber-wealthy, Ackman is founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, an investment company. Earlier this year, his daughter Lucy Ackman suffered a severe brain hemorrhage. Many hours elapsed before her sister found her unconscious.
In such cases, Ackman says in a lengthy post on X, results are most often grim. Doctors don’t usually operate.
Ackman didn’t accept that prognosis. Seeking to inspire Lucy’s caregivers, he told them he would “invest unlimited resources to restore her to life.” Then he asked them to get to work.
A two-plus-hour emergency surgery relieved intense pressure on Lucy’s brain. But Lucy still could not see or breathe on her own. And she would need to learn to walk and speak again longer term.
In August, Ackman made an announcement to his more than two million followers on X: He would use his vast resources to fund a nonprofit called the Ackman Oxman Institute (AOI). Ackman and Oxman also promised millions more in the future.
Ackman purchased several large Manhattan, New York, properties. These will become AOI labs and facilities.
AOI researchers will study rehabilitation, neuroscience, brain-computer interfaces, and human longevity. They’ll focus on cures, treatments, devices, and rehab for patients—not just write academic papers, Ackman’s post says.
Ackman’s resources won’t benefit Lucy alone. The billionaire promises that information learned from her case will be shared to help others, in the present and the future.
Surgery and aggressive medical care have helped Lucy recover cognition, walk 100 steps at a time with assistance, and begin to speak. Sadly, she has not yet regained her sight.
On X, Ackman says, “If you are going to have a devastating brain injury, now is the best time in history for that to happen.”
It’s a hopeful way to look at a tragic situation.
“We are living in a world when you can be confident that the blind will soon see again,” he says. “We are going to do everything we can to help make that happen.”
Devotion, resolve, hope, and generosity like Ackman’s are admirable. They originate in the God of the universe, who created humans in His image—bits of glory from the One whose sacrifice allows believers to sustain faith, follow Christ, and gain eternal life!
Soli Deo gloria.
Why? There is nothing the God of the universe would not give to have His children restored to Him—including His own life, and we are to share that knowledge with others freely. (Romans 8:32)
