Partners
Daniel Gilbert – Chairman and Founder Quicken Loans, Majority Owner Cleveland Cavaliers
Dan Gilbert is Chairman and Founder of Quicken Loans Inc., which consists of Quicken Loans, the nation's largest online home mortgage lender, Rock Financial, Michigan's largest retail mortgage company, and national title insurance and escrow provider, Title Source Inc.
Dan is also majority owner of the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and operator of the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. In addition, he recently led the purchase of the Utah Grizzlies American Hockey League (AHL) franchise that will move to Cleveland and begin play in the 2007–08 season at the Quicken Loans Arena.
Quicken Loans, Inc has more than 4,000 employees and closed nearly $19 billion in home loan volume in 2007.
Quicken Loans Inc. has been ranked a Top 20 "Best Place to Work" in America by FORTUNE magazine for the past four years and ranked the #1 place to work for technology employees in the United States by Computerworld Magazine three years in a row in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Dan founded Rock Financial in 1985 as a 22–year old first–year law student. Rock Financial grew into one of the largest independent mortgage banks in the country. In May of 1998, the company went public on the NASDAQ exchange in an IPO led by Bear Stearns, Inc.
In January, 1999, the company launched its internet strategy which quickly positioned itself as the leader in online retail mortgages.
In December, 1999, software maker Intuit purchased Rock Financial and the national web operation was renamed Quicken Loans Inc. With Dan staying on as CEO, Quicken Loans quickly became the leading provider of home loans on the Internet. The Quicken Loans website has gone on to earn "Best of the Web" accolades from Forbes, Money and PC Magazines.
In July, 2002, (2 1/2 years after the sale to Intuit), Gilbert led a small group of private investors and purchased Quicken Loans Inc., back from Intuit. The company has been 100% privately held since that time. As part of the buy back of the company, Quicken Loans Inc. retained all rights to the Quicken Loans Inc. trademarks.
Dan became majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers in March 2005. He has led a complete overhaul of the franchise by replacing the front office, coaching staff and completing a $15 million dollar renovation to the newly named Quicken Loans Arena (also known as "The Q.")
In Gilbert's first full year of ownership the Cavaliers posted the 6th best record in the NBA at 50–32, returned to the playoffs for the first time since 1998, won a playoff series for the first time since 1992 and nearly upset the heavily favored Detroit Pistons in the second round, ultimately, losing in the 7th and final game of the series.
Dan is a partner in private investment group Camelot Ventures, which primarily invests in consumer–based technology businesses. Some of Camelot's past and current investments include: 1–800 Contacts, Red Envelope, Cellerant, a California–based non–embryo stem cell company, and Michigan based online promotions company, ePrize.
Dan was also Rawlings Sporting Goods' largest shareholder and was instrumental in effecting the sale of Rawlings to K2 in March 2003.
In addition, Dan has invested in and helped develop numerous residential and commercial real estate properties primarily through a real estate LLC, Rock Equities.
Dan is the president of JARC, a non–profit organization in Michigan that provides housing and services to the developmentally disabled. He also is on the board of the Children's Tumor Foundation in New York City and the Children's Hospital of Michigan Foundation.
Mr. Gilbert is a national speaker who has recently been the keynote speaker at Harvard's Business school, University of Michigan's Business school, the national NAACP conference as well as numerous other businesses, non–profit and educational groups.
Dan is a frequent guest on CNBC's business programs including "guest host" of CNBC's Morning Call. He has appeared many times on ESPN, CNN, FOX, ABC and other networks.
Mr. Gilbert earned his bachelor's degree from Michigan State University and his law degree from Wayne State University.
He was awarded the "Entrepreneur of the Year" award from Ernst and Young and has been inducted into the Junior Achievement Hall of Fame.
This past fall, he was named one of the country's "Forbes 400."
He lives in suburban Detroit with his wife and their 5 children.