Nelson Peltz, activist marketer

When the investor takes control of companies like Tiffany and Heinz, he changes the sales pitch as well as the sales. (Fortune Magazine) -- The job description for a corporate raider is simple: Buy stock in mismanaged companies, and then growl at them until management pays you a lot of money to go away - or you make management go away. Brand reinvention is usually not part of a raider's attack plan, unless you're Nelson Peltz. Peltz, 66, spends hours wandering supermarkets, malls, and fast-food restaurants with his ten children (ages 5 to 45) to get investing ideas, which he later chews over with partners Peter May and son-in-law Ed Garden, who together run Trian, a hedge fund founded in 2005. According to people familiar with the fund, Trian now has more than $5 billion under management, including investments in companies... [read full story]