Billionaire CEO demands UPenn leaders quit in antisemitism row

Marc Rowan made the demands after his alma mater hosted the Palestine Writes Literary Festival last month

The billionaire CEO of a New York private equity firm has demanded that University of Pennsylvania leaders quit in a row over alleged anti-semitism.

In an unpublished op-ed written for UPenn’s student newspaper and obtained by Insider, Marc Rowan demanded that the school’s president, Elizabeth Magill, and the chairman of its board of trustees, Scott Bok, both step down.

Mr Rowan, who runs Apollo Global Management, called for the ousters after his alma mater hosted the Palestine Writes Literary Festival last month.

The event, which was not sponsored by the university, featured over 100 speakers and artists from Palestine and its diaspora dedicated, according to its organisers, to “the belief that art challenges repression and creates bonds between Palestine and the rest of the world.”

The festival attracted controversy for inviting figures like professor Marc Lamont Hill, who was removed from CNN in 2018 after making remarks calling for an end to what he said was Israel’s “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians and supporting a “free Palestine from the river to the sea.” Others took issue with presenters using the academic frame of settler-colonialism to discuss Zionism and Israeli policy.

Organisers of the festival have denied it embraced antisemitism, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported.

Following the event, more than 4,000 people, including Mr Rowan, signed an open letter to Ms Magill, saying that “platforming of outright antisemitism without denunciation from the university is unacceptable.”

At the time, the university disavowed the event, but supported its right to be held on campus, saying in a statement that “we unequivocally — and emphatically — condemn antisemitism as antithetical to our institutional values.

“As a university, we also fiercely support the free exchange of ideas as central to our educational mission,” the statement continued. “This includes the expression of views that are controversial and even those that are incompatible with our institutional values.”

But in the wake of Hamas’ recent attack on Israel, which saw more than 1,200 Israelis killed by Hamas terrorists, Mr Rowan argued that the university’s response was not enough and urged fellow UPenn alumni to “close their checkbooks” until the institution’s leadership resigned.

“Join me and many others who love UPenn by sending UPenn $1 in place of your normal, discretionary contribution so that no one misses the point,” he wrote.

“President Magill’s allowing of UPenn’s imprimatur to be associated with this conference, and her failure to condemn this hate-filled call for ethnic cleansing, normalized and legitimized violence that ranged from the targeting of Jewish students and spaces here at UPenn to the horrific attacks in Israel,” he added.

He also claimed that following the open letter, the university was “working to purge all Trustees with dissenting points of view by explicitly and aggressively demanding those who signed the open letter resign.”

Apollo CEO Mark Rowan (Reuters)

Mr Bok denied Mr Rowan’s claims, telling Insider it was out of line for Mr Rowan to denounce the board and university’s stance on the festival.

“Once a leadership team has done appropriate consultation and reached a decision, it is extraordinarily unusual in a corporate, university or nonprofit context for a board member to publicly oppose that decision, let alone solicit others to join their dissenting view,” he said in his statement.

“We did make known to two Trustees pursuing that unusual step that they could consider voluntarily resigning, thereby freeing them from all the constraints involved in serving on a board. Those individuals chose not to resign, and they remain welcome as members of Penn’s board”

The dispute follows a similar dispute at Harvard University after a group of 33 student organisations, led by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, released a statement on social media on Saturday arguing that Israel’s “apartheid regime” created the impetus for the war.

The letter prompted furious backlash, with Harvard professors and alumni calling on the university’s leadership to condemn the letter as well as Hamas, the Gaza-based organisation behind the 7 October attacks.

“We see sickening parallels between Harvard leadership’s inaction against Harvard’s antisemitism and the failure by UPenn’s leadership to take a stand against hate,” Mr Rowan wrote in his op-ed.

Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, issued a statement three days after the letter was published condemning the Gaza attacks and distancing the university’s leadership from the letter.

“As the events of recent days continue to reverberate, let there be no doubt that I condemn the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas,” she wrote. “Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one’s individual views of the origins of longstanding conflicts in the region.

“Let me also state, on this matter as on others, that while our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership,” she added.

Billionaire Bill Ackman also called for the names of all Harvard students who signed the letter to be made public. Mr Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, he did not want to “inadvertently hire” students who were part of the organizations.

Other executives, such as the CEOs of Sweetgreen and MeUndies, voiced their support for the effort, with Jonathan Shokrian of MeUndies comparing the ideas in the original letter to a “cancer“.

But by Wednesday, Mr Ackman’s call came under fire after a truck appeared near the Harvard campus, circling the university and displaying photos of Harvard students and organisations allegedly linked to the original statement.

Meanwhile, the university’s Hillel — a center for Jewish students — said it “strongly condemns any attempts to threaten and intimidate co-signatories of the Palestine Solidarity Committee’s statement.”

More than 1,300 Israelis and 1,500 Palestinians have been killed since fighting broke out on Saturday after Hamas terrorists stormed into Israel, killing hundreds of people and taking dozens captive after they broke through the Gaza border.

At least 27 American citizens are among the dead, the White House said on Thursday.