T om Gores is an Israeli-born American billionaire who is a prominent private equity investor and professional sports team owner. He is the founder of Platinum Equity, a major global private equity firm based in Los Angeles. Born in Nazareth, Israel, to a Catholic family, he immigrated to the U.S. as a child. After university, he founded Platinum Equity in 1995. The firm specializes in complex leveraged buyouts of businesses that are often underperforming or are non-core divisions of larger corporations. The firm has acquired hundreds of companies across a wide range of industries.

While he built his fortune in private equity, Gores is more widely known as the owner of the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA), a team he purchased in 2011. He has been a key figure in the revitalization of downtown Detroit, having moved the Pistons from the suburbs back to a new arena in the city center. His brother, Alec Gores, is also a billionaire private equity investor.