About Dan Gilbert
Dan Gilbert
Chairman, Rock Ventures LLC
Founder and Chairman, Quicken Loans Inc.
Majority Owner, Cleveland Cavaliers
Dan Gilbert is the Chairman of Rock Ventures LLC, the umbrella entity for his investments and real estate; Founder and Chairman of Quicken Loans Inc., the nation’s largest online home lender and fourth largest retail lender in the United States.
Dan is also majority owner of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, the NBA Development League’s Canton Charge, the American Hockey League’s Lake Erie Monsters, as well as the operator of the Quicken Loans Arena (“The Q”) in Cleveland, Ohio.
Detroit-based Quicken Loans employs more than 8,000 people nationally and earned the highest ratings for customer satisfaction among all U.S. home loan lenders in a study by J.D. Power and Associates in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Quicken Loans ranked in the Top 10 of FORTUNE Magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2012, and has placed among the Top 30 companies on FORTUNE’s list for the past nine years. The company also has been recognized as one of Computerworld Magazine’s “100 Best Places to Work in Technology” the past eight consecutive years, ranking in the top 5 in 2012.
Over the past two years, Quicken Loans moved its headquarters and more than 6,500 of its team members to downtown Detroit, where Dan and the company are helping lead a revitalization of the city’s urban core. The company will move an additional 1,000 team members from the suburbs to the city by late 2012.
Dan founded Rock Financial in 1985. The company grew into one of the largest independent mortgage lenders in the country and in the late 1990s, launched its Internet strategy and quickly positioned itself as the fastest growing direct mortgage lender on the Internet.
In 2000, software maker Intuit purchased Rock Financial and the company was renamed “Quicken Loans.” Dan stayed on as CEO, leading the company as it became the largest online home lender. QuickenLoans.com has gone on to earn “Best of the Web” accolades from Forbes, Money and PC Magazine.
In 2002, Dan led a group and purchased Quicken Loans and its affiliated national title company, Title Source, Inc., back from Intuit.
Dan became majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2005 and undertook a complete overhaul of the entire organization, installing a new philosophy and winning strategy. Shortly after, the Cavaliers won the 2007 Eastern Conference Championship, advancing to the NBA Finals for the first time in the team’s 37-year history. The team finished the 2008-2009 regular season with a franchise record and NBA-best 66 wins and followed that in 2009-2010 with another NBA-best 61-win regular season.
Dan is a founding partner in private equity group Rockbridge Growth Equity LLC. The partnership invests in growing businesses in the financial services, Internet technology, consumer-direct marketing, and the sports and entertainment industries. Some of Rockbridge’s investments include:
- Northcentral University, a premier online educational institution;
- Protect America, a leading home security company;
- One on One Marketing; a premier educational institution sales lead provider;
- Connect America, a direct-to-consumer provider of personal emergency response systems, and
- Purchasing Power, a niche e-commerce business that allows clients’ employees a way to purchase products through payroll deduction.
In addition, Dan is a principal of Detroit Venture Partners (DVP), a new Detroit-focused venture capital firm that funds start-up and early-stage technology companies in Detroit.
Dan is also invested and is involved in the operation of several consumer-based, technology-centered businesses, including:
- Fathead, the leader in sports and entertainment graphics;
- Veritix, a provider of paperless ticketing;
- Xenith, a developer of helmet technology that reduces brain injuries; and
- StyleCaster, a community for all things fashion, beauty and music.
Dan and a group of partners successfully backed a state-wide referendum to bring first-class casino gaming to Ohio’s four largest cities in November 2009. Through a joint venture with Caesars Entertainment, the partnership is developing and will operate unique urban based casinos in both Cleveland and Cincinnati. The large-scale developments will include street level accessible restaurants and retail to engage, promote and encourage gaming patrons and others to visit and support existing cultural, nightlife and sports attractions in the downtown areas where they are located.
Dan launched Bizdom in Detroit in 2007. The non-profit entrepreneurial academy trains, mentors and finances business builders in their start-up enterprises in the city of Detroit. Bizdom U’s mission is to create successful businesses, jobs, growth and wealth in large urban centers. Bizdom launched a second location, in downtown Cleveland, in 2011.
Dan serves on the boards of the Cleveland Clinic, the Washington D.C.-based Children’s National Medical Center (CNMC), and the Children’s Tumor Foundation. Dan also serves as Vice Chairman of the non-profit, M-1 RAIL initiative, formed to lead the vision and implementation of light-rail transportation in downtown Detroit.
Dan earned his bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and his law degree from Wayne State University.