Nelson Peltz is an American billionaire investor and activist shareholder, born in 1942 in the Cypress Hills section of East New York, Brooklyn, New York City, to a Jewish family as the youngest of three sons of Maurice Herbert Peltz (1901-1977), a wholesale food distributor, and Claire Peltz (née Wechsler; 1905-2007). His grandfather, Adolph Peltz, founded the family business A. Peltz & Sons in 1896. Peltz attended Horace Mann School in the Bronx and enrolled at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1960, joining the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, but dropped out in 1963 without earning a degree.

After dropping out, Peltz drove a delivery truck for the family business before expanding it with his brother Robert B. Peltz into institutional frozen foods. In 1973, with Peter W. May (who joined in 1972), they took Flagstaff Corp. public, rebuilt it after its 1979 bankruptcy, and in 1983 acquired Triangle Industries Inc., where he served as CEO, growing it into a major packaging firm before selling to Pechiney in 1988. Through Triarc Companies Inc., he acquired Snapple from Quaker Oats in 1997 and sold it profitably to Cadbury Schweppes in 2000.

Peltz co-founded Trian Fund Management, L.P. (also referred to as Trian Partners) in 2005 with Peter W. May and Edward P. Garden, serving as a founding partner. The firm manages $8.5 billion in assets and pursues activist investment strategies in companies such as Heinz, Ingersoll Rand, Wendy's (where he is non-executive chairman), Sysco, Madison Square Garden Company, DuPont, Mondelēz International, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble (board seat won in 2017), and Unilever (non-executive director since 2022). He has served as a director for Heinz, Mondelēz International, and Ingersoll Rand. In 2024, Trian lost a high-profile proxy battle for Disney board seats, after which Peltz sold the stake.

Peltz has been married twice: first to Cynthia Abrams (m. 1964; div. 1981), with whom he has two children; second to former model Claudia Heffner Peltz (m. 1985), with whom he has eight children, including actors Nicola Peltz Beckham (b. 1995) and Will Peltz (b. 1986), former hockey prospect Brad Peltz (b. 1989), a Trian Partners executive (likely Matthew Peltz), and several others, for a total of 10 children.

A Republican donor and self-described centrist, Peltz contributed $250,000 to George W. Bush's 2005 inauguration, hosted a 2020 fundraiser for Donald Trump (later expressing regret post-January 6, 2021), initially supported Ron DeSantis in 2024 before endorsing Trump, and has long supported Sen. Joe Manchin and Jewish causes, citing concerns over Biden's immigration policies, age, and health.

His net worth is estimated at $1.5 billion as of March 2026 (Forbes), primarily from investments. Peltz is an art collector with residences including the Montsorrel mansion in Palm Beach, Florida (site of daughter Nicola's 2022 wedding to Brooklyn Beckham), and Bedford, New York. He serves on the Board of Trustees of New York-Presbyterian Hospital (since 2019) and has no verified personal social media accounts.

Controversies include criticism by Disney as 'destructive' in the 2024 proxy fight; a 2023 lawsuit against daughter's wedding planners for a $159,000 refund; a 2025 lawsuit by a former housekeeper alleging injury from the family dog Houdini; a 2025 Palm Beach fine of $250 daily for an unpermitted padel court at Montsorrel (ongoing as of December 2025); and the McWhorter Foundation's 2024 intent to sue Trian and Peltz over alleged market manipulation and insider trading on Palm Beach island.