William Gross

Co-founder PIMCO | Billionaire bond trader

World's biggest bond trader got start gambling. Arranged gambling pools while studying at Duke; spent a summer working the slots at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe. Vegas stint playing blackjack turned $200 into $10,000 in just 4 months. Vietnam vet; earned M.B.A. from UCLA. Took job as a securities analyst at Pacific Life. Discovered key to making money with bonds: trade, don't buy and hold. Given $10 million portfolio to manage in 1973; already earning $20 million bonuses by the 1980s. Bond division spun off to create Pimco; public offering in 1994. Netted personal $400 million in 2000 sale to German insurance goliath Allianz AG for $4.7 billion. Stamp collector sold British stamp hoard for $9.1 million last June to benefit Doctors Without Borders. Bill and Sue Gross’ messy split minted a new billionaire and dragged down another. Sue filed for divorce in 2016 from her husband, the founder of asset-manager Pimco, and she walked away a year later with a $1.3 billion fortune. That haul included a $36 million Laguna Beach house and “Le Repos,” a contested 1932 Picasso painting that she later sold for $35 million. While Bill originally tried to hang on to one of their three pet cats, Sue eventually got custody of all of them. Bill lost his spot on The Forbes 400 in 2018 following 14 consecutive years on the list. Both now run their own charitable vehicles.

Relationships Interlocks Giving Data

Donors to Common Recipients

Recipients of donations from William Gross also received donations from these orgs and people

Donor	Common Recipients
Les Weisbrod	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Philip A Laskawy	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Paul Tudor Jones II	Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Jim Maloney
Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
George S Kaufman	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
David E Franasiak	Michael Ferguson, Vito John Fossella, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Bill Thomas
George M Ross	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Robert A Day	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Burton P Resnick	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Frank J Biondi Jr	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Daniel Brodsky	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Richard A Grasso	Vito John Fossella, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Jim Maloney
Lillian Vernon	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Richard A Friedman	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Craig Hatkoff	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Andrew M Alper	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Larry A Silverstein	Vito John Fossella, Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Ronald Perelman	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Daniel Och	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Frank Brosens	Barack Obama, Al D’Amato, Bill Clinton, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

Types	Person, Business Person
Gender	Male
Birthday	1944
Aliases	Bill Gross

William Gross

Co-founder PIMCO | Billionaire bond trader

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