Jeffrey Gundlach was born on October 30, 1959 and is a native of Amherst, New York, where his Father was a Chemist for a bowling alley. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College where he graduated summa cum laude in math and philosophy in 1981, and attended Yale University for a Ph.D. in theoretical mathematics before dropping out.
In 2009, shortly after his firing from TCW, Gundlach founded Doubleline, along with Philip Barach and 14 other members of Gundlach's senior staff from TCW. Barach was Gundlach's co-manager of the $12 Billion TCW Total Return bond fund. In a February 2011 cover story, Barron's called him the "King of Bonds."
He was married to Nancy Draper, a Bassist in his former band, "The Greens," who filed for divorce from Gundlach in 2010 after being married for more than 20 years. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
However, since March 2011, the ratings of California General Obligation bonds improved from A- to AA- by Standard and Poors and from A1 to Aa3 by Moody's. In 2012, he was included in the 50 Most Influential list of Bloomberg Markets Magazine.
Gundlach's Santa Monica home was burgled in his absence in September 2012 and several pieces of art were taken along with some wine, five designer watches, cash and a prized 2010 red Porsche Carrera 4S. Some days after the theft, Gundlach added to a $200,000 "overall" reward a $1 million reward for the Piet Mondrian painting amongst the missing and a $500,000 reward for the Jasper Johns. The total value of the stolen property was put at $10 million at the time. Within weeks, a tip led to the recovery of the art works and arrests of suspects in the theft. The rewards—with the one for the Mondrian being termed a record for a single art work—were being said to have played a role in the recovery though no determination of payment had been made. The Porsche was still missing.
In 2016, Gundlach agreed to donate $42.5 million to Albright–Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, as part of their capital campaign and expansion project. The gift represents the city’s largest cultural gift from an individual, according to museum Director Jann. The Gallery will be renamed the Buffalo Albright-Knox-Gundlach Art Museum, or Buffalo AKG Art Museum for short.
