APRIL 8 • 2021 | 39

first official job in politics 
working for the Democratic 
Congressional Campaign 
Committee.
He started off as a research 
analyst for the committee, 
then worked for the U.S. 
House of Representatives as a 
legislative correspondent and 
research assistant. “Breaking 
in [to the field] can be diffi-
cult and takes a bit of luck,” 
Feldman says. “Once you 
break into the Hill, you have a 
lot of ability to succeed.”
This was the case for 
Feldman. He then returned 

to the committee, where he 
worked as a research coordi-
nator before being promoted 
to senior research analyst and 
later deputy research director. 
Serving in a leadership role in 
politics prepared him to take 
on his next job as Peters’ chief 
of staff, where he remained 
until this year.
His tenure with Peters 
marked a time in politics 
where monumental moments 
and changes occurred. “When 
Gary got elected to Congress, 
it was during the beginning of 
the Great Recession and the 
auto crisis,” Feldman recalls. 
“It was amazing watching 
someone who had just got-
ten to Congress play such a 
significant role in helping to 
save the auto industry, and 
specifically helping to save 
Chrysler.”

PROTECTING JEWS
One area of his work hit 
particularly close to home. 
At the beginning of 2017 

when Jewish community 
organizations were receiv-
ing bomb threats, including 
Jewish Community Centers, 
Feldman worked alongside 
Peters to secure support 
and physical security for the 
organizations. Growing up 
as a member of Adat Shalom 
Synagogue in Farmington 
Hills, BBYO and University 
of Michigan Hillel, Feldman 
is proud of the help his team 
was able to provide for the 
local Jewish community.
Peters helped lead the 
Senate to a win that saw all 

100 senators signing in favor 
of having all efforts possible 
from the federal government 
being used to investigate the 
threats against Jewish organi-
zations, which in the first two 
months of 2017 alone saw at 
least 98 incidents.
Now, Feldman is looking 
forward to beginning a new 
chapter in life and continu-
ing to influence positive 
change. 
“Eric has extensive experi-
ence working with lawmak-
ers and policy leaders on 
both sides of the aisle,” writes 
Laphonza Butler, Airbnb’s 
head of public policy in 
North America, in a press 
release. “He understands the 
complex policy issues that 
are critical to the success of 
our host community. 
“We are proud to have Eric 
join our team as we continue 
to advocate the economic 
benefits of home sharing cre-
ated for hosts and the com-
munities they call home.” 

and safety precautions permit, 
Ishbia says employees who had 
been working from home will 
be returning. “Hey, we’ve got to 
follow the governor’s orders,
” 
he said. “Most of the team is 
asking, begging to come back.
”

STIFF COMPETITION
Today, as the chief executive 
officer of UWM Holdings 
Corp. (ticker symbol UWMC), 
Ishbia is locked in a high-pro-
file competition for top spot as 
the nation’s top mortgage lend-
er. The current No. 1 is Detroit-
based Rocket Companies Inc., 
also known as Quicken Loans, 
headed by Dan Gilbert, anoth-
er Jewish kid from the suburbs 
who attended Michigan State.
United Wholesale Mortgage 
was originally known as Shore 
Mortgage, a 12-person compa-
ny founded in 1986 by his dad. 
It now employs 8,500. 
In January, UWM emerged 
as a $16 billion publicly traded 
corporation via a merger with 
a SPAC — special purpose 
acquisition company — con-
trolled by Alec Gores, brother 
of Detroit Piston owner Tom 
Gores. The innovative tech-
nique for converting compa-
nies to public ownership lately 
has seized the stock market’s 
imagination. It’s a financing 
method in which investors 
first buy shares of a so-called 
“blank check” company that 
afterward acquires its target — 
in this case, United Wholesale 

Mortgage — the renamed 
company subsequently trading 
under the target’s name.
UWM and Rocket (ticker 
symbol RKT), both originate 
home loans, though their 
approach is different. Rocket, 
roughly three times the size 
of UWMC in terms of market 
capitalization, specializes in 
retail lending directly to those 
buying or refinancing a house; 
UWM focuses on mortgage 
brokers, who shop for mort-
gages on behalf of homebuyers.
“Now, things are a little more 
center stage because we’re 
Numbers 1 and 2,
” Ishbia said. 
Back in the day “they [Rocket] 
were No. 10 and we were No. 
30, in terms of loan origina-
tions.
”
As a relative newcomer 
to media scrutiny, the stock 
market and the responsibilities 
of being a billionaire, Ishbia 
appears to be enjoying himself 
and settling in comfortably. 
He likely isn’t finished with 
athletics, though. When I asked 
him if he wouldn’t like to one 
day own a sports franchise, he 
replied: “I’m very blessed and 
lucky to have the means to 
be able to buy a sports team, 
which is always a dream. I 
wasn’t good enough to play for 
one, so maybe I should own 
one, right? One day will I look 
at doing that? Absolutely, I will. 
“Basketball is obviously my 
passion, so that’
d be my first 
one, but I love all sports.
” 

WORKING FOR SEN. PETERS 
“WAS A REALLY INCREDIBLE 

OPPORTUNITY.”

— ERIC FELDMAN

FROM THE HILL continued from page 37

degree from Central Michigan 
University in 2017, majoring in 
hospitality and minoring in 
business information systems. 

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has 
appointed Ryan Hertz, 

the president and 
CEO of Light-
house, to the 
Michigan Intera-
gency Council on 
Homelessness. 
Hertz, a resident 

of Huntington Woods, joins a 
council designed to develop, 
adopt and update a dec-
ade-long plan to end home-
lessness in Michigan. The plan 
includes “evidence- based 
improvements to programs 
and policies that will ensure 
services and housing are 
provided in an efficient, 
cost-effective and productive 
manner,” the governor’s office 
said. Hertz became CEO of 
Lighthouse in January 2019.

