Billionaire investor Marc Rowan accused of using Wall Street tactics to 'strong-arm' UPenn into leadership change amid antisemitism row

• Apollo CEO Marc Rowan halted his donations to UPenn over the college's handling of antisemitism.
• A UPenn trustee accused Rowan of using aggressive Wall Street tactics to pressure the college.

The billionaire Marc Rowan was accused by a University of Pennsylvania trustee of using aggressive Wall Street tactics to put pressure on the college over its handling of campus antisemitism.

Rowan, who is an alumnus of the university and one of its most generous donors, announced that he was halting his donations to the college over its response to Hamas' October 7 terrorist attacks, The Wall Street Journal reported.

He also called on his fellow Penn alumni to "close their checkbooks" and for the school's president and chairman of its board of trustees to step down.

"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," Rowan wrote about Penn President Elizabeth Magill in an op-ed.

In her initial statement on October 10 on the attacks, Magill said the assault was "horrific" — but she did not explicitly denounce Hamas, The Journal reported.

Magill later issued a follow-up statement condemning Hamas, while Penn this week announced new plans to combat antisemitism.

Rowan has also contacted "half of Wall Street" to discuss ways major donors can utilize their influence to try and bring about leadership changes at top schools, CNBC reported.

The Apollo CEO, who chairs the Wharton School's Board of Advisors, and his wife, Carolyn, donated $50 million to Penn's business school in 2018.

His actions are now causing some at Penn to worry over the influence that donors have over how the college is run.

Andy Rachleff, a trustee at Penn, told The Wall Street Journal that he saw Rowan's outspoken efforts as an attempt "to strong-arm the university using the classic Apollo playbook."

"We are not going to succumb to these tactics even if it results in lower donations. The soul of the university is not for sale," he added.

Tension on US college campuses over antisemitism has continued to rise since Hamas' attacks on Israel and the latter's retaliatory airstrikes and ground offensive in Gaza.

Ivy League donors have pushed back at their alma maters after a controversial letter signed by multiple Harvard student groups condemed Israel for Hamas' attacks.

Billionaire Bill Ackman, the founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, called for Harvard to release the students' names to stop CEOs from "inadvertently" hiring them.

This week, Jewish students also announced they were planning to sue colleges such as Cornell and Harvard for not doing enough to stop the "explosion" of antisemitism on college campuses.

It comes in response to allegations that the universities have turned a blind eye to increasing antisemitism.