Carl Icahn

Carl Icahn
Born	Carl Celian Icahn 16 2, 1936
Birthplace	New York City, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Businessman, investor
Title	Founder and Controlling Shareholder, Icahn Enterprises
Known for	Founding and controlling Icahn Enterprises; activist investing; 1980s "corporate raider"
Education	Princeton University (B.A.)
Spouse(s)	Liba Trejbal (m. 1979; div. 1999) Gail Golden (m. 1999; div. 2025)
Awards	Forbes 400 listee
Website	[[carlicahn.com carlicahn.com] Official site]

Carl Celian Icahn (born February 16, 1936) is an American businessman and investor who has shaped the landscape of corporate finance over more than five decades. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a publicly traded diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida. Icahn's investment approach centers on acquiring large stakes in companies he believes will appreciate from changes to corporate policy, after which he pressures management to enact those changes for the benefit of shareholders. He was among the first activist shareholders and is credited with making activist investing a mainstream strategy for hedge funds. During the 1980s, Icahn developed a reputation as a "corporate raider" following his hostile takeover of Trans World Airlines (TWA). He has appeared on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans for decades, though his net worth has fluctuated substantially — from a peak of approximately $17.5 billion to roughly $4.8 billion following a high-profile confrontation with a short seller. Since 2011, Icahn has no longer managed money for outside clients, though investors can still gain exposure to his strategies through Icahn Enterprises. As of late 2025, nearing the age of 90, Icahn has continued to be actively involved in managing his investment empire.

Early Life

Carl Celian Icahn was born on February 16, 1936, in New York City. He grew up in the borough of Queens, in the neighborhood of Far Rockaway, a working-class and middle-class community at the southern tip of the city. His father, Michael Icahn, was a cantor and later a substitute teacher, and his mother, Bella, was also a schoolteacher. The family was of Jewish heritage. Icahn's upbringing in a household of educators instilled in him a competitive intellectual disposition, though his ambitions from an early age gravitated toward business and finance rather than academia or the arts.

Icahn attended Far Rockaway High School, a public school that had produced a number of notable alumni, including several Nobel laureates. He was a strong student and gained admission to Princeton University, one of the most selective universities in the United States. After completing his undergraduate education, Icahn briefly attended the New York University School of Medicine but left before completing a medical degree, deciding that a career in medicine was not for him.

Icahn's early career trajectory took him to Wall Street, where he began working as a stockbroker in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He took a position at Dreyfus & Company before moving on to other firms. In 1968, he formed Icahn & Co., a securities firm focused on risk arbitrage and options trading, which became the foundation for his future investment activities. These early years on Wall Street gave Icahn an intimate understanding of corporate finance, stock valuation, and the mechanisms through which undervalued companies could be identified and restructured for profit — skills that would define his career in the decades that followed.

Education

Icahn enrolled at Princeton University, where he studied philosophy and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. His philosophical training, particularly his interest in empiricism, later informed his analytical and often contrarian approach to investing. After Princeton, Icahn enrolled at the New York University School of Medicine, but he did not complete his medical degree, choosing instead to pursue a career in finance. He entered the U.S. Army for a brief period before beginning his career on Wall Street.

Career

Early Wall Street Career and Founding of Icahn & Co.

Icahn began his Wall Street career in 1961, working as a stockbroker. He subsequently moved into options trading, developing expertise in a relatively niche area of finance at the time. In 1968, he established Icahn & Co., a securities firm based in New York City that specialized in risk arbitrage and options trading. The firm provided Icahn with both capital and experience in evaluating corporate transactions and identifying discrepancies between a company's market valuation and its intrinsic or breakup value. This expertise became the intellectual foundation for his later career as an activist investor and corporate raider.

Throughout the 1970s, Icahn honed his approach of purchasing significant stakes in companies he viewed as undervalued, then advocating for changes — including asset sales, management restructuring, share buybacks, or outright takeovers — designed to unlock shareholder value. This strategy placed him at the vanguard of a new class of investors who would come to prominence in the following decade.

The Corporate Raider Era: 1980s

The 1980s marked Icahn's rise to national prominence and notoriety as one of the foremost "corporate raiders" of the era. During this period, a wave of hostile takeovers, leveraged buyouts, and corporate restructurings swept through American business, and Icahn was among the most visible figures driving this transformation.

His most consequential and controversial deal of the decade was the hostile takeover of Trans World Airlines (TWA) in 1985. Icahn acquired a controlling stake in the airline and subsequently took the company private. He was criticized for engaging in asset stripping — selling off TWA's valuable assets, including its London routes, to service the debt incurred in the acquisition. The TWA takeover became a defining case study in the corporate raider phenomenon, with critics arguing that such tactics enriched financiers at the expense of employees, communities, and the long-term viability of the companies themselves. Icahn maintained that his actions were necessary to restructure inefficient companies and create value for shareholders.

Beyond TWA, Icahn targeted numerous other companies during the 1980s, building stakes and pressuring boards of directors to adopt his recommended changes. His willingness to engage in public proxy fights and hostile bids made him one of the most feared figures in American boardrooms during this period.

Transition to Activist Investing

As the corporate raider era faded in the late 1980s and early 1990s — partly due to regulatory changes and the collapse of the junk bond market — Icahn transitioned his approach. Rather than pursuing outright hostile takeovers, he increasingly adopted what came to be known as "activist investing," a strategy in which a large shareholder acquires a significant position in a company and then publicly or privately advocates for specific changes to corporate governance, strategy, or capital allocation.

Icahn is credited with helping to make activist investing a mainstream strategy among hedge funds and institutional investors. His model — acquiring a stake, publishing an open letter or making public demands, and using the threat of a proxy contest to compel change — became widely emulated by a subsequent generation of activist hedge fund managers.

A notable example of Icahn's activist approach came in 2004 when he began a campaign against the management of Mylan Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company, in an effort to block its proposed acquisition of King Pharmaceuticals, which Icahn viewed as value-destructive for Mylan shareholders. In 2009, he took on Biogen, pushing the biotechnology company to consider strategic alternatives including a potential sale.

Icahn Enterprises

Icahn Enterprises, LP (formerly American Property Investors, Inc.) is the publicly traded holding company through which much of Icahn's investment activity is conducted. The diversified conglomerate has held interests in a wide range of industries, including energy, automotive, real estate, food packaging, metals, mining, and gaming.

Among its holdings was Federal-Mogul, an auto parts manufacturer, which Icahn took control of and served in a leadership capacity. Icahn Enterprises has also held stakes in or controlled companies in the gaming industry; Icahn was notably involved with the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which he closed in 2016 after a prolonged standoff with labor unions.

Icahn also explored the sale of the Fontainebleau Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, a property he had acquired out of bankruptcy.

As of the third quarter of 2025, the Icahn Enterprises portfolio was valued at approximately $7.89 billion, with the top five holdings accounting for 89.74% of the total portfolio, reflecting Icahn's characteristically concentrated investment style. In early 2026, analysis of Icahn's fourth quarter 2025 13F filing continued to attract attention from financial analysts and investors tracking his strategic moves.

Since 2011, Icahn has no longer managed money for outside clients, operating primarily through Icahn Enterprises. Investors seeking exposure to his investment strategy can do so through the publicly traded units of the company.

Apple Investment

One of Icahn's most high-profile investments of the 2010s was his large stake in Apple Inc. In August 2013, Icahn disclosed a significant position in Apple via a post on Twitter, stating that the company was undervalued and calling for increased share buybacks. As of September 30, 2013, Icahn held approximately 39 million shares of Apple.

Icahn publicly pressured Apple's management and board to return more capital to shareholders through larger buyback programs. His advocacy contributed to a broader conversation about capital allocation at Apple during this period. However, in April 2016, Icahn sold his entire stake in Apple, citing concerns about the impact of China's economic slowdown on the company's business. The investment was widely reported to have been highly profitable for Icahn.

Pep Boys and Other Investments

Icahn's investment activities in the mid-2010s extended into the automotive retail sector. In December 2015, he acquired a stake in Pep Boys – Manny, Moe & Jack, the auto parts and service chain, with an eye toward potential deals involving the company. Icahn ultimately acquired Pep Boys in a deal that exemplified his long-standing strategy of purchasing companies in sectors he understood well and where he believed operational improvements could generate significant returns.

Icahn has been involved in numerous other transactions across various sectors throughout his career, including investments in energy companies, real estate ventures, and technology firms. His concentrated portfolio approach — holding a small number of large positions rather than a diversified basket of investments — has been both a source of outsized returns and, at times, significant losses.

Confrontation with Short Seller and Net Worth Decline

In a development that drew significant attention in the mid-2020s, Icahn's net worth experienced a dramatic decline following a confrontation with a prominent short seller. According to reporting by the New York Post in November 2025, Icahn's fortune plummeted from a recent peak of approximately $17.5 billion to roughly $4.8 billion, representing a decline of nearly 75%. The drop was described as the largest of his career. The episode raised questions about the structure and leverage employed at Icahn Enterprises and brought scrutiny to the company's financial disclosures.

Despite these challenges, Icahn, nearing the age of 90, was reported in November 2025 by The Wall Street Journal to still be actively engaged in managing his investment empire. In an interview, Icahn stated that nothing compared to the thrill of being immersed in a fight, suggesting that his appetite for corporate confrontation remained undiminished.

Role as Adviser to President Trump

In January 2017, Icahn was named Special Advisor to the President on Regulatory Reform by President Donald Trump. In this unpaid role, Icahn was tasked with advising the new administration on issues related to deregulation and regulatory policy.

However, Icahn's advisory role attracted controversy and scrutiny over potential conflicts of interest between his governmental advisory role and his business investments, particularly in the energy and refining sectors. A New York Times investigation in March 2017 highlighted ethical red flags associated with the arrangement. A lengthy investigation by The New Yorker characterized the episode as a "failed raid on Washington."

Icahn resigned from his advisory position on August 18, 2017, just ahead of a New Yorker article that detailed the conflicts of interest associated with his role. His departure was announced via a letter in which Icahn stated that he did not want partisan bickering about his role to distract from the administration's agenda.

Icahn had previously been a supporter of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. In October 2015, he announced plans to create a $150 million super PAC to support candidates who shared his views on corporate tax reform and other economic issues, a move that drew attention to the intersection of his political and financial interests.

Personal Life

Carl Icahn has been married twice. His first marriage was to Liba Trejbal in 1979; the couple divorced in 1999. He subsequently married Gail Golden in 1999; that marriage also ended in divorce in 2025.

Icahn has been involved in philanthropic activities, including significant donations to education and medical research. He has funded the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City and other charitable initiatives, though he has generally maintained a relatively low public profile with regard to his charitable giving compared to some other billionaire investors.

A property owned by an Icahn Enterprises subsidiary, IEP Chester, in the Village of Chester in New York's Hudson Valley, attracted attention in 2025 when it was named by the federal government as a potential future facility for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Reporting noted the connection between the warehouse property and Icahn, a former adviser to President Trump.

Icahn has been based in various residences in New York City and Florida over the course of his career. As of 2025, Icahn Enterprises is headquartered in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida.

Recognition

Icahn has been a perennial fixture on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans. At various points, Forbes has estimated his net worth in excess of $17 billion, though this figure declined substantially in the mid-2020s. In 2013, he appeared on the Forbes list of the highest-earning hedge fund managers.

The Motley Fool has described Icahn as ranking "among the world's most famous investors," noting his ascent to what it characterized as a legendary status in the financial industry. His investment strategies and activist campaigns have been the subject of extensive coverage in publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and The New Yorker.

A profile in BusinessWeek in 2000 described Icahn as "the once and future dealmaker," acknowledging his enduring influence on American finance even after the corporate raider era had ended.

Icahn has been featured in numerous documentaries and financial media programs over the course of his career, and his tactics have been studied extensively in business schools as case studies in corporate governance, shareholder activism, and takeover strategy.

Legacy

Carl Icahn's career spans more than five decades and encompasses some of the most consequential developments in American corporate finance. As one of the original "corporate raiders" of the 1980s, he helped reshape the relationship between shareholders and corporate management at a time when many boards of directors operated with limited accountability to investors. His hostile takeover of TWA remains one of the most cited examples of the leveraged buyout era, illustrating both the potential for financial gain and the social costs associated with aggressive corporate restructuring.

Icahn's subsequent evolution into an activist investor helped establish a model that has since been adopted by dozens of hedge funds and investment firms. The strategy of acquiring significant stakes in publicly traded companies and pressuring management for change — through public letters, media campaigns, proxy fights, or the threat of a hostile takeover — has become a standard tool in the investor's arsenal, and Icahn is credited with pioneering this approach.

His investments in companies ranging from TWA to Apple to Pep Boys reflect a career characterized by a willingness to enter unfamiliar industries, a conviction-driven investment style, and a combative approach to corporate engagement. His concentrated portfolio strategy — as evidenced by the fact that his top five positions represented nearly 90% of his total portfolio as of 2025 — reflects an investment philosophy that eschews diversification in favor of deep conviction in a small number of positions.

At the same time, Icahn's career has not been without significant controversy. Critics have argued that his activist campaigns have at times prioritized short-term financial returns over the long-term health of the companies involved. His role as an adviser to President Trump and the associated conflicts of interest drew bipartisan criticism. And the steep decline in his net worth in the mid-2020s raised questions about the sustainability of the leveraged structures through which his empire operated.

As of late 2025, Icahn, approaching the age of 90, remained an active participant in financial markets, continuing to manage his investments through Icahn Enterprises. His longevity and continued engagement in the business world speak to the enduring nature of his influence on American capitalism.