“Most Africans have cell phones, which is hard to believe,” Gross said in the interview. “So if you can do that and contribute $25 or $50 to someone in Uganda that of course you haven’t met, that’s almost as good as outperforming the market.”

Less Restful

In 2005, Bill and Sue Gross gave $23.5 million to Duke University, his alma mater. Other major gifts include $20 million to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, also in 2005; $10 million to the University of California, Irvine, in 2006; $20 million in 2012 to Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles; $20 million in 2013 to the medical charity Mercy Ships to fund the construction of a floating hospital; and $10 million to Mission Hospital in Laguna Beach in 2014.

These days, Gross isn’t accumulating wealth like he once did; he now runs a $1.5 billion fund for Denver-based Janus Capital Group Inc., tiny compared with the $293 billion flagship he once oversaw at Pimco.

Some of the couple’s fortune is invested in that vehicle, the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund. Gross detailed some of his other investments, personally and on behalf of the foundation. They include closed-end municipal bond funds and stocks such as Procter & Gamble Co. and Johnson & Johnson.

Gross said he and Sue don’t expect to live long enough to give away everything and so his three children will have to finish the job.

Reflecting on mortality in his most recent monthly investment outlook for Janus, Gross wrote: “The ‘responsibility’ for a life’s work grows heavier as we age and the ‘unrest’ less restful by the year.”

 
First « 1 2 » Next