(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Bill Ackman made a top hire for his think tank focused on “American renewal,” poaching a senior staffer from a conservative group backed by fellow hedge fund mogul Paul Singer.

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Yael Hungerford, who spent three years as the executive director of the Adam Smith Society at the Manhattan Institute, said she’s leaving to lead Ackman’s Pershing Square Foundation’s new think tank effort in a few weeks, according to an email seen by Bloomberg News.

A spokesman for Ackman declined to comment. Hungerford and representatives for Manhattan Institute didn’t immediately provide comment.

Hungerford has led the Adam Smith Society since October 2021, according to her LinkedIn profile. It maintains a network of chapters at top business schools focused on promoting free-market ideas.

Ackman announced plans for his think tank in January, describing it as a “think-and-do tank.” He said the organization would continue his scrutiny of antisemitism and diversity, equity and inclusion policies on US campuses and go “after these issues in a very aggressive way.”

The Pershing Square founder became one of the most vociferous critics of administrators at Harvard University and other colleges following protests over the Israel-Gaza war. His campaign against Harvard president Claudine Gay ended in her ouster.

Ackman’s activism, mainly through lengthy posts on social media platform X, expanded to attacking DEI initiatives more broadly, and prompted backlash from Black executives on Wall Street. They warned that it would harm efforts to diversify corporate America.

The Manhattan Institute claims its efforts to eliminate DEI on college campuses have been adopted in about a dozen US states. Singer, who became chair in 2008, has been an ideological force at the organization and rallied support from Wall Street billionaires including Dan Loeb and John Paulson. The group’s fellows include conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who aided Ackman’s campaign against Gay.

--With assistance from Katia Porzecanski.

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