BARRY ROSENSTEIN

Rosenstein graduated from Lehigh University in 1981 with an accounting degree, then earned an MBA from Wharton in 1984 and worked at firms including Goldman Sachs before moving into private equity and activism at Sagaponack Partners. In 2001 he founded JANA Partners with about $35 million in capital.

He grew it into a multibillion-dollar activist fund by buying big stakes in underperforming companies and pushing for change. His most famous campaign came in April 2017, when he revealed that JANA and allied investors owned 8.8% of Whole Foods, making them the second-largest shareholder, and demanded a board shake-up.

Weeks later Amazon agreed to buy Whole Foods, and Rosenstein sold JANA's stake for about $300 million in July 2017. He has also taken on companies like Apple, where in 2018 JANA pushed for tools to address child smartphone overuse.

JANA Partners

Rosenstein buys large stakes in companies he believes are trading below their real worth, then pushes management and boards to make the changes he thinks will close the gap. His whole pitch is that he brings out the full value hiding inside a company.

He tries to work cooperatively with management when he can, but he is happy to fight hard when he has to. He calls it an iron fist encased in a velvet glove, and adds that JANA can be as tough as anybody.

In later years he expanded into so-called social activism, pushing companies on issues like child welfare, arguing that doing right and making money can line up.

Whole Foods. In April 2017 Rosenstein disclosed that JANA and its partners held 8.8% of the grocer and pushed publicly for change.

That pressure helped set off a chain of events that ended with Amazon buying Whole Foods, and JANA sold its position for roughly $300 million in July 2017, a huge gain booked in a matter of months. It was activism at its cleanest.

Spot an undervalued company, apply pressure, and let a strategic buyer deliver the payoff.

Not every JANA campaign paid off like Whole Foods. The firm went through a rough patch in the mid-2010s when activist bets soured and investors pulled money, forcing Rosenstein to return capital and shrink the fund at one point before rebuilding it.

His high-profile 2018 push urging Apple to tackle child smartphone addiction generated headlines but little concrete change from the world's most valuable company. The lesson across his record is that even a sharp activist cannot move every target, and the giants are the hardest to budge.

Rosenstein believes activism can be done ethically, comparing it to most professions where you can choose to operate with integrity. He thinks the job is simple at its core.

Find a company worth more than its stock says, then unlock that value. He is fond of saying business is really just about people, and that relationships matter as much as spreadsheets.

He also argues activism, done right, benefits everyone, not just the activist, by forcing lazy companies to sharpen up.

Rosenstein keeps his family life largely private. He is a longtime supporter and Corporation member of Brown University, where his philanthropy is well documented.

Rosenstein earned an accounting degree from Lehigh University in 1981, then an MBA from the Wharton School in 1984. The accounting background matters.

It gave him the forensic eye for balance sheets that underpins JANA's activist theses.