The billionaire who made his fortune on loans and mortgages bought a basketball team with LeBron James and was busy saving his hometown of Detroit. Daniel “Dan” Gilbert was born on January 17, 1962, in Detroit, Michigan, USA, under the sign of Capricorn. He was born into a Jewish family. His parents were also businessmen.
Biography
Grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, Southfield. The father owned a bar in Detroit, they did not have a close relationship with his son. Gilbert’s grandfather is an immigrant from Russia.
He studied at Wayne University and the University of Michigan.
Business
- At the age of 12, he organized a pizza delivery service: children on bicycles delivered food to neighbors from nearby shops. In 2007, Gilbert claimed to hold the world record for 78 pizzas delivered per night. Gilbert was able to make $ 5,000 by delivering pizza. After a short time, he worked as a reporter on TV.
- In 1985 he founded the Rock Financial mortgage company. At that time, the future billionaire was 22 years old. In 1998, it went public, and in 1999, Gilbert sold it to Intuit for $ 532 million.
- In 2002, Gilbert bought Quicken Loans back. Over time, it has developed into a group of companies that includes more than 50 different enterprises. Quicken Loans is the largest US mortgage company in terms of money issued. In 2019, she provided $ 146 billion in home loans.
- In August 2020, Quicken Loans went public with Rocket Companies, valued at $ 36 billion.
- In 2010, Gilbert moved the Quicken Loans headquarters to Detroit. Gilbert is trying to breathe life into a dying city that was the center of the American auto industry in the last century but is now in decline. Gilbert has invested more than $ 5.6 billion in approximately 100 properties in Detroit. To this end, he founded Bedrock in 2011. Several buildings are occupied by Quicken Loans.
- Owns the holding company Rock Ventures, which includes more than 100 businesses. It includes both Quicken Loans and Bedrock. Gilbert is also co-founder of the platform for selling sneakers StockX – it became a “unicorn” in June 2019: its value was estimated at $ 1.1 billion.
- In 2005, he bought a controlling stake in the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers for $ 375 million. He also owns the Cleveland Monsters, hockey team.
Personal life
The wife is Jennifer Gilbert. The couple has five children.
In 2010, he wrote an open letter to fans in which he criticized NBA star, LeBron James, for his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat. Later, Gilbert apologized for this message, and the NBA fined him $ 100,000. LeBron returned to Cleveland in 2014 and won the championship with the team in 2016.
In 2012, Gilbert and his wife took part in the initiative of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett The Giving Pledge – they promised to give at least half of their fortune to charity.
In May 2019, he was admitted to the hospital with a stroke. The restoration only within the walls of the medical institution took a month.
Daniel Gilbert’s career
In 1985, Gilbert founded a company called Rock Financial. In 2000 Intuit Inc. acquired Rock Financial, renaming it Quicken Loans, and Dan became its CEO.
Then in March 2005, Dan became the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He also bought the American Hockey League The Utah Grizzlies. He also owns the Cleveland Gladiators of the Arena Football League.
Dan gained international acclaim when LeBron James decided to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat. He is also the founder of the Rockbridge Growth Equity LLC (RBE) private equity group.
He is also the CEO of Detroit Venture Partners. Gilbert additionally invested in Courtside Ventures. Quicken Loans Inc. – Eight-time winner of the JD Power Award for Excellence in Customer Satisfaction (Mortgage).
Cleveland Cavaliers is a two-time Eastern Conference champion and four-time Central Division champion. Gilbert’s ownership of the Cleveland Gladiators made him the 2014 American Conference Champion and 2014 Eastern Division Champion. Gilbert has created his own legacy and is one of the world’s greatest business tycoons.
