Bill Gross

William Hunt "Bill" Gross (born April 13, 1944) is an American financial manager and author. He co-founded Pacific Investment Management (PIMCO). Gross also ran PIMCO's $270.0 billion Total Return Fund (PTTRX). Gross left Pimco to join Janus on September 26, 2014.

Early life and education

Gross was born in Middletown, Ohio, the son of Shirley (Tait), a homemaker, and Sewell Mark Gross, a sales executive for AK Steel Holding.(subscription required) Part of his family is originally from Winnipeg, Canada. He was raised a Presbyterian. He moved with his parents to San Francisco in 1954. Gross graduated from Duke University in 1966 as an Angier B. Duke Scholar, and with a degree in psychology. At Duke, he joined Phi Kappa Psi. He then served in the Navy and earned an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management in 1971. Gross briefly played blackjack professionally in Las Vegas, Nevada, and has said that he applies many of his gambling methods for spreading risk and calculating odds to his investment decisions.

Bill Gross (entrepreneur)

William T. "Bill" Gross (born 1958) is an American businessman. Gross grew up in Encino, California and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

He founded GNP Loudspeakers (now GNP Audio Video), an audio equipment manufacturer; GNP Development Inc., acquired by Lotus Software; Knowledge Adventure, an educational software company, later acquired by Cendant; and the business incubator Idealab in March, 1996, of which he serves as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer.

Gross serves on the boards of numerous companies. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology and of the Art Center College of Design.

Internet and technology

One company founded by Gross, GoTo.com, Inc., provided an Internet search engine which relied upon sponsored search results and pay-per-click advertisements. GoTo.com was later renamed Overture Services Inc. and was then acquired by Yahoo! to provide their Yahoo! Search Marketing products.