Bill Gross

Chairman and Chief Executive, Idealab

Bill Gross founded Idealab in March 1996 to create and build successful businesses that capitalize on innovations in areas with significant growth opportunities, including the internet. A lifelong entrepreneur, Gross started several companies prior to Idealab. In high school, he founded Solar Devices, which sold plans and kits for solar energy products. In college at Caltech, he patented a new loudspeaker design and formed GNP Loudspeakers Inc. After graduating, he and his brother Larry started GNP Development Inc., which made a natural language product. In 1991, Bill Gross started Knowledge Adventure, which grew into the third-largest educational software publisher in the world.