Bill Ackman’s Wife, Neri Oxman, apologises for plagiarism in her 2010 dissertation

Following ex Harvard President Claudine Gay’s resignation amid plagiarism reports, Bill Ackman slams ‘attack on my family’ as his wife’s work is probed.

Bill Ackman and wife, Neri Oxman. Picture: Supplied

Neri Oxman, an architect and the wife of billionaire investor Bill Ackman, has apologised for instances of plagiarism in her 2010 dissertation.

A Business Insider article Thursday said she didn’t use quotation marks when quoting another work in several instances and paraphrased from a book without a citation.

Ackman had pushed to oust Harvard University President Claudine Gay, who resigned Tuesday, in part because of allegations of plagiarism in her academic work.

Oxman, who started New York-based design and technology company Oxman in 2020, wrote the dissertation when she was a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was a professor at MIT’s Media Lab for about a decade, starting in 2010, before leaving to focus on her firm.

You know that you struck a chord when they go after your wife, in this case my love and partner in life, @NeriOxman.

I am one of the most fortunate people in the universe in large part because of Neri.

Please see her post below about today’s Business Insider piece about her… https://t.co/SJb9iFsKJY

— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) January 4, 2024

“I regret and apologise for these errors,” Oxman said in a post on X Thursday. Ackman was at the forefront of the effort to push out Gay because of her response to antisemitism at the school, as well as the plagiarism allegations. The Harvard Corporation, the university’s governing body, said in December that reviews of Gay’s work uncovered some instances of “inadequate citation,” but that the omissions didn’t meet the bar of outright research misconduct.

Gay acknowledged some missteps. She requested four corrections on two academic papers and is updating her dissertation in three spots, according to the school.

Gay, the first Black person to lead the university, is a scholar of race and politics. She became the second university president, after Liz Magill at the University of Pennsylvania, to resign following an appearance in front of Congress to discuss antisemitism on campus. Many of Gay’s supporters said she was targeted in part because of her race.

Members of Congress tried to take credit Tuesday for Gay’s resignation, as did conservative activists who amplified the plagiarism accusations.

Ackman remains focused on pressing for change at Harvard. He said this week that members of the Harvard Corporation should step down, and called for disbanding the school’s office focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion.

“You know that you struck a chord when they go after your wife,” Ackman posted on X after the Business Insider article was published.

“Part of what makes her human,” Ackman said of Oxman, “is that she makes mistakes, owns them, and apologises when appropriate.” Ackman took to X again Friday evening to address a new article from Business Insider alleging additional instances of Oxman copying material without attribution, including entire paragraphs, in some of her academic writings.

“It is unfortunate that my actions to address problems in higher education have led to these attacks on my family,” he wrote on X. Ackman also said he would launch a review of work by MIT’s faculty, president and board members for signs of plagiarism.

My wife, @NeriOxman, was just contacted by Business Insider claiming that they have identified other plagiarism in her work including 15 examples in her dissertation where she did not cite Wikipedia as a source.

Business Insider told us that they are publishing their story…

— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) January 5, 2024

Before the publication of Business Insider’s second article, Oxman and Ackman declined to comment beyond their Thursday posts. Neither responded to additional requests for comment late Friday after the latest article was published.

MIT leaders are focusing on the institute’s work, a spokesperson said late Friday.

Write to Joseph Pisani at [e-mail]

Wall Street Journal