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Dan Gilbert's Mug Graces Forbes' Cover; Ranked 117th Richest in America

September 29, 2014, 12:08 PM

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Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert, who hob-nobs from time to time with billionaire Warren Buffett, has made his own mark. 

Gilbert's mug is on the cover of Forbes magazine for its annual story on Forbes 400 Richest Americans. Bill Gates comes in No. 1 on the list, followed by Buffett. Gilbert is 117.

Detroit bureau chief Joann Muller writes that Gilbert, 52, has amassed an empire worth $4.2 billion, including the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, casinos in four U.S. cities, 110 other loosely linked small companies. He's noted for bankrolling Detroit's recovery downtown.

Muller writes:

But while Gilbert has attracted a fair amount of attention for his efforts, the most brilliant–and risky–part of the story is far less known. Yes, he’s saving Detroit because he loves the city, and yes, he sees an unprecedented opportunity to snap up real estate on the cheap (he is in the mortgage business, after all). But more than anything else, Dan Gilbert is saving Detroit to help his business.

If you think luring LeBron James back to Cleveland from Miami, which Gilbert famously did earlier this year (see box) , was an impressive piece of corporate headhunting, it is nothing compared with the h.r. challenge Gilbert faces every day. His empire rests on luring the kind of young, educated, technologically savvy employees that every employer in the nation craves. To get them he must compete with the golden glow of places like Palo Alto and Manhattan. Gilbert’s genius is to see Detroit–the most dilapidated, forlorn urban environment in North America–not as a hindrance but rather as a unique opportunity to build the kind of place that Millennial workers crave: authentic, inspiring, edgy and cheap.                                                                   

 

 


Read more:  Forbes


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