The billionaire hotel scion at the center of the fight over Harvard

Penny Pritzker was at Harvard when word arrived just before the start of Passover last month: President Trump was demanding sweeping changes at the university whose powerful governing board she helps lead.

The billionaire, a 66-year-old Hyatt hotel heir, had been with Harvard President Alan Garber for an alumni event, according to a person close to her. Pritzker was set to fly back home to Chicago to celebrate the Jewish holiday with family. But first, she had to confront a major escalation in the school’s fight with Trump over billions of dollars in federal funding.

The heat on Pritzker rose again this week. On Monday, donor Bill Ackman, the hedge-fund billionaire, Harvard alum and Trump ally, criticized her on CNBC: “It’s time for a change in leadership in the board at Harvard.” Later that day, Education Secretary Linda McMahon piled on in a letter posted to social media, calling her “a Democrat operative, who is catastrophic and running the institution in a totally chaotic way.”

As Harvard Corporation’s senior fellow, Pritzker stands at the center of the most consequential battle between a school and the U.S. government in more than half a century.

A former U.S. Commerce Secretary who led Barack Obama’s presidential campaign fundraising, Pritzker gave Harvard $100 million in 2021 and has served as the board’s senior fellow since 2022.

The White House, citing concerns about campus antisemitism, has frozen billions of dollars in federal funding, targeted Harvard’s tax-exempt status and threatened its ability to enroll international students. Harvard has fought back with a lawsuit, saying the government has violated the school’s constitutional rights and imperiled its academic independence.

The dispute is charged with decades of bad blood between the Republican president and the Pritzker family, a major Democratic Party force. Trump has feuded with the family since at least the 1990s, going back to a Manhattan real-estate fight that included Penny Pritzker’s now-deceased uncle, Jay Pritzker. “You’re a bad guy, Jay. I’m going to kick your ass,” Trump later recalled saying.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Penny’s youngest brother and a potential 2028 presidential candidate, has become one of Trump’s top critics. In New Hampshire last week, he said it was wrong for Trump to go after universities with the pretense of fighting antisemitism. “Stop tearing down the Constitution in the name of my ancestors,” the governor said.

At Harvard, Garber and the Corporation say they are standing by Penny Pritzker: “We applaud her dedicated stewardship and her leadership at a time when Harvard is committed both to strengthening our campus culture and protecting the academic freedom, research and innovation that benefits millions of Americans.” She declined to comment for this article.

Pressure on Pritzker has simmered at Harvard almost since she joined the board in 2018. She helped steer the school through the pandemic and led the search for a new president. Claudine Gay ended up serving just six months—the shortest tenure for a president in Harvard’s history. Gay resigned after outcry over her handling of campus protests calling for the end of Israel, a botched performance at a congressional hearing and allegations of plagiarism in her own academic work.

A collection of donors voiced concerns at an intimate dinner after the end of the school year last year. Pritzker and Garber dined at the Harvard Club in New York with former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, wealthy hedge-fund manager John Paulson and others. Pritzker and Garber were criticized for allowing antisemitism to rise to the level it had at Harvard, people familiar with the event said.

Some donors said the Corporation had more power than it was leveraging to address the situation and urged Pritzker to crack down on antisemitic behavior. She responded that as a Jew, she felt compelled to address the issue, the people said.

The roughly 20 attendees took turns weighing in. Blankfein said Harvard is supported by the American taxpayer and has an obligation to make the case that the money is well spent, and is generating advances in technology and medicine. But, he added, the case needed to be made broadly by Harvard’s leadership, and that wasn’t happening.

That July, Blankfein reminded Garber and provost John Manning that they or Pritzker should be in the media promoting Harvard’s contribution to the country. Blankfein warned that Harvard was six months away from “confrontation with a recharged, Trump/Vance-inspired set of Congressional committee chairs and staffs” and that Harvard should be thinking of ways to define itself to the American public to avoid leaving a vacuum for detractors to fill. “Enjoy the quiet moment,” he wrote, signing off on the email.

It didn’t stay quiet for long. After taking office in January, Trump made good on campaign promises to shake up elite universities. The White House came after Harvard at the end of March, opening a review of nearly $9 billion in federal funds. Harvard rejected a list of demands, and sued the Trump administration.

Pritzker “recognizes that you sometimes have to draw a line and fight a fight before you can find a path to a resolution,” said Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, where Pritzker serves on a 12-member board of directors.

There is some irony in Pritzker, a staunch supporter of Israel, being embroiled in a controversy over not doing enough to prevent antisemitism. She has spoken at events supporting the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and JB Pritzker was the driving financial force behind building the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.

A runner who has completed triathlons, Pritzker is assiduous about doing her homework, supporters say. “It would make the staff crazy sometimes because they would say, ‘You will never need to know that,’ and she would respond that is not the point,” says Bruce Andrews, a former deputy commerce secretary who worked for Pritzker.

Pritzker is drawing on decades of experience dealing with crises in her family and professional life. She developed a Chicago skyscraper, founded several companies, including a luxury senior-housing chain, and served as chairwoman for a credit-reporting business. Her family has also clashed with the Internal Revenue Service over Caribbean tax shelters, been part of the 2001 failure of a bank that specialized in subprime lending, and tangled with organized labor.

For a young Pritzker, Harvard offered stability and support. When she was 13 years old, her 39-year-old father died after playing tennis in Hawaii. A decade later, her mother, an alcoholic and Democratic activist, died after driving drunk. She jumped from a moving tow truck after her car broke down.

Vivian Riefberg, a retired senior partner with McKinsey who attended Harvard with Pritzker and remains a close friend, said Pritzker doesn’t enjoy the Trump administration fight.

“She is fundamentally not a politician,” Riefberg said. “She doesn’t seek, nor need to be, at the center of attention. She seeks to have an impact.”

Write to John McCormick at mccormick.john@wsj.com, Douglas Belkin at Doug.Belkin@wsj.com, Juliet Chung at Juliet.Chung@wsj.com and AnnaMaria Andriotis at annamaria.andriotis@wsj.com