Ackman Backs Harvard Prof Accused of Research Misconduct

A prominent critic of Harvard University says he’s financially supporting a former professor’s discrimination and breach-of-contract lawsuit against the institution.

Bill Ackman, an alum who led the effort to oust former Harvard president Claudine Gay, wrote in a lengthy Jan. 2 X post that he’s been funding Francesca Gino’s lawsuit since June 2024 and pledged to continue to do so until “she clear[s] her name.” Gino, a dishonesty researcher, was accused of research misconduct in 2021 and had her tenure revoked last May. 

Gino, who was a professor in Harvard Business School, maintains her innocence. In a court filing submitted over the summer, she accused a Harvard dean of lying and argued that the university’s findings against her were based on “mere speculation.” That lawsuit, first filed in 2023, is headed to trial in December. 

“Almost nothing makes my blood boil more than when a large powerful institution unfairly destroys someone’s reputation, and its principal reason for doing so is to minimize bad publicity in an effort to protect its own ‘reputation,’” Ackman wrote, adding that he believes Gino is innocent. 

Backing Gino once again pits Ackman against his alma mater.

“The problem with big institutions is that they are massive bureaucracies which occasionally put aside the core principles on which they are founded because they are embarrassed, because they are busy, and/or it is easier to ignore the harm they may cause to the little guy in the interest of protecting their reputation and/or avoiding further distraction to leadership,” he wrote. “They also often assume that the little guy will eventually give up and/or run out of resources to keep fighting. I am going to make sure that doesn’t happen here.”