Wilbur L. Ross Jr.

WL Ross & Co.

In November 1997, under Rothschild & Co, Ross started a $200 million fund to invest in distressed securities. In its first year, it earned a 15.2% return. In April 2000, just before the dot-com bubble burst, Ross founded WL Ross & Co and raised $450 million to buy the fund from Rothschild and make additional investments. By 2003, the fund had averaged a 30% return.

In 2006, Ross sold WL Ross & Co to Amvescap (now Invesco).

International Steel Group (ISG)

In February 2002, WL Ross & Co founded International Steel Group. He first agreed to buy the assets of bankrupt Ling-Temco-Vought for $325 million, paying $11 per ton of capacity when other firms were trading for $200 per ton of capacity. A few weeks later, George W. Bush slapped a 30% tariff on many types of imported steel. A year later, WL Ross & Co acquired the assets of bankrupt Bethlehem Steel. As part of the bankruptcy reorganizations, these companies shifted their huge pension liabilities to the government-backed Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Ross had support from the United Steelworkers, negotiating a deal to save some jobs.

In April 2005, WL Ross & Co sold International Steel Group to Mittal Steel Company for $4.5 billion, half in cash and half in stock, and made 12.5 times its original investment. Ross personally made a $260 million profit on his $3 million investment and gained a seat on the board of directors of Mittal Steel.

International Textile Group (ITG)

After outbidding Warren Buffett, who offered $579 million, WL Ross & Co acquired Burlington Industries for $620 million and combined it with Cone Mills in 2004 to form International Textile Group.

In 2005, Ross acquired 77.3% of Safety Components International for $51.2 million.

In October 2006, Ross had International Textile Group acquire Safety Components International. Ross controlled both companies and in February 2014, Ross paid $81 million to settle a lawsuit brought by shareholders that Ross breached his fiduciary duty when structuring the merger. International Textile Group was acquired by private equity firm Platinum Equity in 2016.

International Automotive Components Group (IAC)

International Automotive Components Group was formed in 2006 by WL Ross & Co and investment funds managed by Franklin Templeton Investments. In 2006, the company acquired the European operations of Lear Corporation and in 2007, it acquired Lear's North American interiors operations. In 2005–2007, IAC purchased several divisions of Collins & Aikman. In September 2005, investors led by Ross invested $100 million in Oxford Automotive for 25% of the company. In 2006, Oxford merged with Wagon Automotive.

International Coal Group (ICG)

WL Ross & Co founded International Coal Group in 2004 after acquiring the assets of several bankrupt coal companies. The United Mine Workers of America protested the reorganization as it led to changes in health care and pensions for the existing employees.

In 2006, the Sago Mine disaster, an explosion in a coal mine indirectly owned by International Coal Group, likely caused by a lightning strike, led to the deaths of 12 miners. The mine had 12 roof collapses in 2005, and U.S. Department of Labor data showed 208 citations for safety violations in that same period, including 21 times for build-up of toxic gases. Miners and their families accused Ross of ignoring safety violations. Ross defended his company's management of the mine.

In 2011, Arch Coal acquired International Coal Group for $3.4 billion.

Navigator Gas

By January 2016, WL Ross & Co was the "biggest investor" in Navigator Gas, a liquefied gas shipping company.

Overstating of net worth

In February 2017, Forbes reported that Ross has a net worth of $2.5 billion. Financial disclosure forms filed by Ross after his nomination as Commerce Secretary showed less than $700 million in assets, and Forbes later revised his net worth to $600 million.

Overcharging of fees

In August 2016, Ross agreed to reimburse investors $11.8 million and pay a fine of $2.3 million to settle a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission probe into the overcharging of fees by WL Ross & Co. The company had self-reported the issue and did not admit any liability.

On August 7, 2018, five former WL Ross & Co. employees and investors claimed the firm was charging its investors fees on money it had lost, including allegedly charging fees on one investment that was essentially worthless.

Privatization

In the 1990s, New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani appointed Ross as his privatization advisor. He helped push to privatize the city's public broadcasting stations and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and worked to sell off empty land lots to businesses.

Trade policy

Ross has described himself as "pro-sensible trade" and said that the U.S. government "should provide access to our markets to those countries who play fair, play by the rules and give everybody a fair chance to compete. Those who do not should not get away with it – they should be punished." Initially in favor of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Ross has said that after examining the agreement, he found it was "not consistent with what was advertised".

In 2004, The Economist described Ross as a supporter of protectionism.

At the 2018 World Economic Forum in Davos, Ross responded to concerns of a trade war by noting that "There have always been trade wars. The difference now is U.S. troops are now coming to the ramparts."

Supreme Court decision

On June 27, 2019, the Supreme Court, in Department of Commerce v. New York, left the citizenship question blocked from the 2020 census, in part because of the government's explanation for why it was added. In the Supreme Court opinion, there was a significant mismatch between Secretary Ross's decision to add the question, and his stated reason that the question would support Department of Justice's Voter Rights Act.

NOAA/Hurricane Dorian controversy

On September 1, 2019, President Donald Trump made the incorrect claim that Hurricane Dorian presented a major threat to Alabama; minutes later the Birmingham, Alabama, branch of the National Weather Service (NWS) (which is under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is part of the Commerce Department) reported that Alabama was not at risk. The New York Times reported that Ross had threatened, a few days late, to fire high-level NOAA staff unless the agency disavowed its contradiction of Trump's false claim, leading to a September 6 NOAA statement from an unidentified spokesperson endorsing Trump's position and declaring that the NWS Birmingham's contradiction of Trump was incorrect. The Commerce Department denied that Ross had threatened to fire "any NOAA staff over forecasting and public statements about Hurricane Dorian." Later reporting said that Ross had made the call from Greece, where he was traveling, after being told to "fix the problem" by acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, reportedly on Trump's orders. NOAA's disavowal prompted an outcry from scientists and others, who said that the agency's failure to back its hurricane forecasters damaged its credibility.

A subsequent report by the National Academy of Public Administration, commissioned by NOAA, found that NOAA's leadership violated the agency's scientific integrity policy by releasing a statement backing Trump's false statement about Hurricane Dorian's path. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Commerce Department separately investigated the incident and concluded that the Commerce Department "ran a 'flawed process' that did not sufficiently engage NOAA and went against the interests of the agency and the National Weather Service." In a July 2020 letter to Ross, Inspector General Peggy Gustafson expressed "deep concern" that the department was blocking OIG from publicly releasing its report by asserting "amorphous and generalized privileges." The letter prompted Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell, the ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, to call upon Ross to "immediately cease this campaign to keep the public in the dark." The House Science Committee also probed Ross's role in the issuance of the NOAA statement.