Here’s a look at the life of Bill Gross, founder of PIMCO, Pacific Investment Management Company.
Personal
Birth date: April 13, 1944
Birth place: Middleton, Ohio
Birth name: William Hunt Gross
Father: Sewell “Dutch” Gross, a steel company sales executive
Mother: Shirley Gross
Marriages: Amy Schwartz (2021-present); Sue (Frank) Gross (1985-2017, divorced); Pamela Roberts Gross (divorced)
Children: with Sue Frank: Nick; with Pamela Roberts: Jeff and Jennifer
Education: Duke University, B.A. in Psychology, 1966; University of California at Los Angeles, M.B.A, 1971
Military: US Navy, 1966-1969
Other Facts
Billionaire, bond investor, philanthropist and avid stamp collector.
Founder, former co-chief investment officer and managing director of PIMCO, one of the world’s largest mutual funds. Under Gross, PIMCO became the world’s largest bond fund manager.
Timeline
1966 - While recuperating from injuries suffered in a serious car accident, Gross teaches himself to count cards in blackjack. After college graduation, he turns $200 into $10,000 in four months.
1971 - Is hired as a junior bond analyst for Pacific Mutual Insurance Company.
1971 - PIMCO is formed as a division of Pacific Mutual with colleagues William Podlich and James F. Muzzy.
1985 - PIMCO formally splits from Pacific Mutual.
2003 - Founds the William and Sue Gross Family Foundation, through which millions of dollars are donated to universities, hospitals and organizations.
2005 - Gross and his wife, Sue, give $23.5 million to Duke University for undergraduate and medical school students and for the Fuqua School of Business.
2006 - Donates $10 million to the University of California at Irvine for stem cell research and to help build a new research lab. The lab opens in 2010 and is named in their honor, Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center.
2007 - A stamp collector since childhood, Gross auctions his collection of British stamps for $9.1 million and donates the proceeds to Doctors Without Borders.
2009 - Donates $8 million for the establishment of a stamp gallery at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum in Washington, DC. The gallery is named in his honor, the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery, and opens in September 2013.
September 2014 - Gross unexpectedly resigns from PIMCO to join Janus Capital Group, where he manages the Janus Unconstrained Bond Fund.
July 1, 2015 - The Smithsonian Institution includes Gross’s old Bloomberg keyboard in its American Enterprise exhibition at the National Museum of American History. The keyboard, used by Gross during the 1990s and 2000s, has function keys for accessing real-time financial information.
October 8, 2015 - Gross sues former employer PIMCO for hundreds of millions of dollars, alleging he was wrongfully ousted from the firm as part of a vast conspiracy. The lawsuit claims a “cabal” of PIMCO executives driven by a “lust for power, greed” and self-interest plotted for Gross’s demise. On March 27, 2017, Gross and PIMCO announce they reached an “amicable settlement.”
February 4, 2019 - Announces he will retire. Janus Henderson (formerly Janus Capital Group) says he will leave the firm on March 1.
October 13, 2020 - Gross and his partner Amy Schwartz sue their neighbors, Mark Towfiq, CEO of data center development company Nextfort Ventures, and his wife Carol Nakahara. Towfiq and Nakahara file a countersuit the next day, on October 14. According to court filings, Gross and Schwartz installed a large art installation along the property line, partially blocking Towfiq and Nakahara’s ocean views. After an investigation, the city of Laguna Beach determined the installation, netting and lights were a violation of city code and did not have the proper permits. Shortly after, Towfiq and Nakahara allege Gross began retaliating against them by harassing and disturbing them with “loud music and bizarre audio recordings at excessive levels” during various hours of the day and night – including pop or rap music, and often a series of television theme songs, according to the lawsuit, including the “Gilligan’s Island” theme on a loop.
October 1, 2021 - Gross and his wife are found guilty in contempt of court after violating a 2020 order that prohibited them from playing loud music outside their home. The two are fined $1,000 each and face five days in jail as well as a ban on outdoor music. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, however, their jail sentences are suspended and replaced with two days of community service.
March 2, 2022 - Self-publishes his memoir “I’m Still Standing: Bond King Bill Gross and the PIMCO Express.”