Michael Gross

Michael Gross has been influential in developing the business development company (BDC) structure as a vehicle for retail investors to access private credit markets. At Apollo Investment Corporation, he helped build one of the early and prominent BDC platforms. He subsequently founded Solar Senior Capital to focus on senior secured lending to middle market companies. BDCs are publicly traded companies that invest in private credit — primarily loans to middle market businesses — and pay out most of their income as dividends. They have become the primary mechanism through which retail investors can access private credit returns. Gross's career demonstrates the evolution from traditional bank lending to the alternative credit market. His work in structuring and managing BDCs helped clarify the governance standards, disclosure requirements, and investor communication practices that have allowed the BDC industry to grow into a multi-hundred billion dollar asset class accessible to retail and institutional investors alike.