Dan Gilbert

Daniel Bruce Gilbert (born January 17, 1962) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the co-founder, majority owner, and chairman of Rocket Mortgage, and founder of Rock Ventures. He is also well-known as the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association, the Cleveland Charge of the NBA G League, and the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League. As of May 2025, Forbes estimated his net worth at US$22.5 billion, making him the 88th richest person in the world.

Gilbert was born to a Jewish family in Detroit, Michigan.

Gilbert's father, Sam, owned Sakesy's, a Detroit bar, and his grandfather managed a Detroit carwash.

At age 12, Gilbert organized a pizza delivery service with children on bikes delivering in the neighborhood.

He grew up in Southfield, Michigan, where he attended Southfield-Lathrup High School.

While attending college he worked delivering pizzas himself.

Gilbert founded Rock Financial in 1985 with Ron Berman, Lindsay Gross and his younger brother Gary Gilbert. In the late 1990s, the company launched its internet strategy, becoming an early online direct mortgage lender. In the fourth quarter of 2017, the company became the largest retail mortgage lender by volume in the United States.

In 2000, software maker Intuit Inc. purchased Rock Financial and renamed the national web operation Quicken Loans. In 2002, Gilbert and a group of private investors purchased Quicken Loans and its affiliated national title company, Title Source, Inc., from Intuit. As of 2021, Gilbert was the chairman of Quicken Loans, Inc.

In 2007, Gilbert and the city of Detroit announced an agreement to move the company's headquarters to downtown Detroit. All 3,600 Michigan-based employees moved into Detroit's urban core by the end of 2010.

In August 2020, Quicken Loans went public under the name Rocket Companies and made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "RKT". As of 2020, Gilbert remained the majority owner, controlling 79% of the company's shares.

In 2005, Dan Gilbert bought the Cleveland Cavaliers for $375 million, which was then a record price for an NBA team. Since then, he has overseen significant improvements to the team's facilities.

In September 2012, Gilbert and his wife Jennifer joined The Giving Pledge, committing to give half of their wealth to philanthropy throughout their lifetimes.

Gilbert's eldest son was born with neurofibromatosis and died at the age of 26 in 2023. Gilbert established two neurofibromatosis research clinics at the Children's National Medical Center (CNMC) in Washington, D.C., and at the Dana Children's Hospital at the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Israel. Gilbert is also on the boards of the Children's Tumor Foundation, the Cleveland Clinic, and the Children's Hospital Foundation (an affiliate of CNMC); and is the vice-chairman of the not-for-profit M-1 RAIL initiative which is dedicated to promoting light-rail transportation in downtown Detroit. Overall, Gilbert has donated in excess of $95 million to support research and treatments of Neurofibromatosis.

In 2015, Gilbert donated $750,000 to the presidential candidacy of Chris Christie.

In September 2016, Gilbert donated $5 million to Wayne State University Law School. In October of that year, Gilbert also donated $15 million toward the planned $50-million Breslin Center renovation project at Michigan State University.

In 2020, Gilbert made a $1.2 million donation to help COVID-19 relief efforts in the city of Detroit.

For many years Gilbert and his wife, Jennifer Gilbert, lived together in Michigan. Jennifer Gilbert is on the Gilbert Family Neurofibromatosis Institute at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and on the boards of ORT America and the Israeli and Overseas Committee of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. On May 26, 2019, Dan Gilbert was taken to the hospital and treated for a stroke at the age of 57.

Their eldest son, Nick Gilbert, died on May 6, 2023, after a long battle with neurofibromatosis. The couple has four other children together.

16-time winner: JD Power Highest Customer Satisfaction Award (10 for Primary Mortgage Origination, six for Mortgage Servicing)

16-time Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For (2005–2017)