The name of the investment company PIMCO is inextricably linked with its founder. Bill Gross, 43, headed and managed to grow a small firm to a giant with a capital of 2 trillion dollars. But in 2014 everything changed, and the permanent leader was dismissed from the position of manager.
Bill Gross: the success and fall of a billionaire
The success of PIMCO was envied by many. It was a success story for Wall Street managers, and its leader was a boring mastodon of the investment market. But it was necessary to look at Bill Gross in a new way after he was fired from his own company.The 70-year-old financier himself didn’t get confused and went to Las Vegas to have a good rest in local casinos.
The head of PIMCO was born in 1944 in Middletown, Ohio. His childhood was spent in a traditional provincial family. His mother was a housewife, and his father worked as a sales manager at the local branch of AK Steel, a company specializing in metallurgy. In 1954, Bill’s father was offered a new position in San Francisco and the family moved.
After finishing school, Gross entered Duke University. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in psychology there, he went to serve in Vietnam, but before going to war, Bill decided to try his luck in Las Vegas, where playing blackjack brought him 10 thousand dollars. But he used the money after his service.
Returning from Vietnam in 1968, Gross decides to retrain and goes to study economics in an MBA course, which was paid for by his winning in Las Vegas. Upon graduation in 1971, Bill became a certified financial analyst with a CFA license.
He began his career with the insurance company Pacific Mutual Life, where Gross was a credit analyst, but over time he became interested in the stock market and bonds.
By pooling capital with two colleagues, Bill created a bond fund as one of the representative offices of Pacific Mutual Life. The company was named Pacific Investment Management Company, which acronym is PIMCO. The initial capital was 12 million dollars. Thanks to properly thought-out actions and conclusion of deals with SCE and AT&T, after 9 years the company’s assets increased to 1 billion dollars.
PIMCO was able to resist in times of crisis, but 2011 was fatal for its head. Having made a wrong prediction about the fall of the State Treasury securities, Gross and his team could not cover the losses and restore their reputation.
After resigning from the position of the head of PIMCO, Bill Gross moved to another investment firm, but after 2 years he quit, and began giving independent economic forecasts for a number of business publications.
Despite his age, he continues to work actively and is included in the rating of billionaires.
