William H. Gross is the cofounder of Pacific Investment Management Company. Gross was born in Ohio in 1944. He graduated from Duke University in 1966 and earned an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management in 1971. His experiences playing professional blackjack later informed many of his investment strategies. Gross is a CFA Charterholder and was once called "the nation's most prominent bond investor" by the New York Times. He is also a noted philanthropist; in 2016, he and his wife donated $40 million to the University of California, Irvine, to establish a nursing school.