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Dan Gilbert Businessman is quick to share his savvy
Dan Gilbert was an entrepreneur from the start. As a kid, the founder and chairman and founder of Quicken Loans/Rock Financial rode his bike to a local drug store, purchased candy bars, and then opened a stand to sell the goodies to other children in his Southfield neighborhood. "The business side came out very young," says David Carroll, who grew up across the street from Gilbert and now is a vice president at his mortgage company. "It was no surprise that he grew to be a successful business person." Gilbert's start-up spirit led his companies to be a shining star in Michigan's bleak business landscape. He founded Rock Financial during his first year of law school. Some two decades later, the company has grown to employ 4,600 people. It is the largest mortgage company in Michigan and is the 11th largest in the nation. His commitment to entrepreneurship continues as, in the past year, he's started Bizdom, a Detroit boot camp for aspiring business owners, and donated $1 million to create the Rock Financial Junior Achievement Park -- an education program that teaches middle and high school students about fiscal responsibility. "I want to positively impact as many people as possible," Gilbert says. "This area is a great challenge, but I think it has so much more potential." Gilbert hasn't stopped opening, or acquiring, his own businesses. He operates or has a significant interest in a dozen companies -- including the controlling ownership in the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. Such assets place him among the world's richest people, with Forbes magazine pegging his net worth at $1.2 billion. No longer is Gilbert taking mortgage applications. Among his responsibilities now, he "mousetraps" or reviews employees ideas on how to improve the business and works with teams to implement the best ones. Overall, he sees himself a protector of the culture he's built at Quicken. Employees are treated to slushy machines in lounges and trips to Cleveland to watch basketball games and concerts. But more than that, Gilbert says it's the mentality Quicken's nationally recognized culture creates. "There is no reason beige and gray need to be the official corporate colors," he says. "The culture allows people to grow, allows them matter, it allows them to fail, it allows them to see things that are broken and to get them fixed … once you do that people give as much or more back." Eric Morath
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Maggie Allesee