Glenn Bryant Stearns (born 1963) is an American businessman, and the founder of

Stearns Lending Stearns Lending, LLC is one of the American wholesale, retail and correspondent lender. Stearns is one of the largest mortgage lenders in the US , Stearns was the fifth-largest privately held lender nationwide. Overview Glenn Stearns founded ...

. He is the star of the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

's show

Undercover Billionaire ''Undercover Billionaire'' is an American reality television series that is broadcast on the Discovery Channel. The show premiered on August 6, 2019 and the final episode of the first season aired September 24, 2019. The show follows billionaire ...

, and subsequent founder of Underdog BBQ in

Erie, Pennsylvania Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...

Early life

Stearns was born in 1963 in

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 censu ...

. His father was a printer and his mother was a grocery store clerk and house cleaner. The family lived in a low-income apartment complex in the suburbs of Washington D.C. Stearns was a socially adept child but struggled in school. He was diagnosed with dyslexia, but his parents kept this from him. He was humiliated when he failed the fourth grade. Stearns' parents divorced when he was 17.

Career

Stearns founded Stearns Lending in 1989. He was chief executive officer (CEO) from its founding until May 2012 when Stearns named Brian Hale, former president and national production executive of

MetLife MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...

Home Loans, as his successor. Stearns Lending was the fifth-largest privately held mortgage lender in the US in 2013.

Personal life

When Stearns was 14 years old, Stearns' eldest child, Charlene, was born. Charlene's mother is a woman named Kathy who was 17 at that time. Charlene now manages Glenn's escrow company. In October 2003, Stearns married Mindy Burbano, who was an entertainment reporter for

Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Para ...

and

KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the seco ...

in Los Angeles. They live in

Jackson Hole Jackson Hole (originally called Jackson's Hole by mountain men) is a valley between the Gros Ventre and Teton mountain ranges in the U.S. state of Wyoming, near the border with Idaho, in Teton County, one of the richest counties in the Unite ...

, Wyoming. Apart from his eldest daughter Charlene, Stearns has three sons named Skyler, Colby, and Trevor and two daughters who often appear on Mindy's Instagram. Stearns also has two grandchildren. In 2004, Stearns and Burbano appeared on the TBS reality TV show, ''

The Real Gilligan's Island ''The Real Gilligan's Island'' is a reality television series that aired two seasons on TBS in 2004 and 2005. Contestants on the show were required to participate in challenges based on plots from the 1960s television show. Both editions of the s ...

'' as "the millionaire and his wife", and he "won" the competition. In 2014, he was diagnosed with cancer, which inspired him to do reality TV. In 2019, the

TV show, ''

'' followed Stearns as he built a

startup company A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

from scratch. During filming of the show he had a recurrence of cancer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stearns, Glenn 1963 births Living people American company founders People from Silver Spring, Maryland Participants in American reality television series Reality show winners