NEW YORK (Dec. 27, 2016) — President-elect Donald Trump has appointed noted Wall Street investor Carl Icahn — whose holdings include tire retailer and auto service provider Pep Boys – Manny, Moe & Jack — as a special adviser on issues relating to regulatory reform.
"Under President Obama, America's business owners have been crippled by over $1 trillion in new regulations and over 750 billion hours dealing with paperwork," Mr. Icahn said in a statement provided by Mr. Trump's transition team.
"It's time to break free of excessive regulation and let our entrepreneurs do what they do best: create jobs and support communities. President-elect Trump is serious about helping American families, and regulatory reform will be a critical component of making America work again."
Mr. Icahn will be advising the president in his individual capacity and will not be serving as a federal employee or a special government employee and will not have any specific duties.
The Trump transition team noted that Mr. Icahn was one of Mr. Trump's earliest supporters in his bid for the White House and said his "intimate knowledge of what businesses need to grow and thrive" makes him a trusted voice in developing the new administration's economic agenda.
Mr. Icahn will be a "leader in helping American entrepreneurs shed job-killing regulations that stifle economic growth," the transition team said.
"Carl was with me from the beginning," Mr. Trump said, "and with his being one of the world's great businessmen, that was something I truly appreciated. He is not only a brilliant negotiator, but also someone who is innately able to predict the future especially having to do with finances and economies. His help on the strangling regulations that our country is faced with will be invaluable."
Mr. Icahn is a New York City native and earned a degree in philosophy from Princeton University in 1957, then attended medical school at New York University and later joined the U.S. Army.
He began his career on Wall Street in 1961. In 1968, he formed Icahn & Co., and has gone on to become one of the most well-known and influential investors in America, holding substantial or controlling positions in numerous American companies over the years.
He also has been involved in many charitable endeavors for years, the transition team said. Mount Sinai School of Medicine renamed its medical school the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2012 following a donation of $200 million, and the Institute of Genomics was renamed the Icahn Genomics Institute.
In the realm of education, Mr. Icahn has established seven Icahn Charter Schools in The Bronx. The schools' mission is based on the belief that all students deserve a rigorous academic program through which they will increase their capacity to learn.
Mr. Icahn, through his Icahn Enterprises entity, won a bidding battle in late 2015 with Bridgestone Americas for control of Pep Boys, spending more than $1 billion for outright ownership of the Philadelpia-based chain and its 800-plus retail locations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
Icahn Enterprises also acquired in 2015 control of Uni-Select USA Inc. and Beck/Arnley Worldparts Inc. — d.b.a. Auto Plus — and is proceeding with plans to merge Auto Plus and Pep Boys.