The arrangement is simple: Mr. Larson makes money, and Mr. Gates gives it away. Since 1994, the 54-year-old Mr. Larson has managed Mr. Gates' investment empire, mostly through a firm called Cascade Investment LLC.
Few people know much about Mr. Gates' assets or Mr. Larson's tactics –Â and the two men want to keep it that way. Real-estate investments, which range from the fancy Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Mass., to a 490-acre ranch in Wyoming once owned by William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, are often cloaked in nondescript names to make it harder to trace the deals back to Mr. Gates.
Cascade's headquarters are in an unmarked building in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland. Mr. Larson is so protective of his boss that he used to be nicknamed "the Gatekeeper," says someone who worked with him. Employees who leave often sign confidentiality agreements barring them from talking about Cascade, people familiar with the matter say.
Mr. Gates' net worth has swelled to about $82 billion from $5 billion since he hired the former bond-fund manager and gave him autonomy to buy and sell investments as he sees fit. In addition to Cascade, which holds most of the billionaire's personal fortune, Mr. Larson oversees the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's $41 billion endowment.
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