It was in the fall of 2008 when the financial crisis was in full crisis mode and I was half-heartily watching CNBC and working from home on laptop, I wasn't particularly playing attention to the TV but when they announced that they were having a special, interviewing hedge fund managers on the Fannie/Freddie Mac bankruptcy, I gave them my undivided attention.
When Bill Ackman first appeared I thought he was just another hedge fund manager: brazen, power-hungry, and driven only by money but then he started speaking he spoke softly but eloquently about the capital structure of the two companies, their cost of capital, wacc, and the potential losses on their products, he offered to work with the treasury to help sort out the mess, free, for the greater good of the public. Never had I ever heard such a knowledge and selfless commentator on CNBC.
You couldn't help but to notice his premature whitening hair which you could imagine was due to long work hours and stress but throughout the entire show he kept his composure. He didn't speak about how to profit from situation but what should be done to have save tax payers from entering the Great Depression 2.0.
I guess that's how I want to see myself in the future, a defender of the public.
On a side note he actually came into my Office once to pitch and raise money for his new fund and I actually had a chance to meet him. A couple of co-workers did and said he was the a pleasure to meet, polite, charming, and modest.
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