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Today: April 06, 2025

Bill Gross Fast Facts

April 08, 2013

(CNN) โ€” Hereโ€™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 โ€œDutchโ€ 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 worldโ€™s largest mutual funds. Under Gross, PIMCO became the worldโ€™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 Smithsonianโ€™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 Grossโ€™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 โ€œcabalโ€ of PIMCO executives driven by a โ€œlust for power, greedโ€ and self-interest plotted for Grossโ€™s demise. On March 27, 2017, Gross and PIMCO announce they reached an โ€œamicable settlement.โ€

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 Nakaharaโ€™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 โ€œloud music and bizarre audio recordings at excessive levelsโ€ during various hours of the day and night โ€“ including pop or rap music, and often a series of television theme songs, according to the lawsuit, including the โ€œGilliganโ€™s Islandโ€ 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 โ€œIโ€™m Still Standing: Bond King Bill Gross and the PIMCO Express.โ€

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