Mat Ishbia is chairman and CEO of mortgage lender United Wholesale Mortgage, now UWM Holdings, founded by his father Jeff in 1986.
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Mathew Randall Ishbia is an American billionaire who is CEO and chairman of mortgage lender United Wholesale Mortgage. He was finalized as majority owner of the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association and Phoenix Mercury of the Women’s National Basketball Association alongside his older brother Justin on February 6th 2023. Mat was Born on January 6, 1980.
Ishbia was raised in a Jewish family in Birmingham, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. He played basketball as a walk-on point guard for Michigan State from 1999 to 2002 and was a member of the team that won the national championship in 2000. In 2013, he succeeded his father as the CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage (founded by his father in 1986). In January 2021, he took the company public which made him a billionaire.
At 43, he became the NBA’s youngest team owner in the league’s history, with the NBA nearly-unanimously approving of the sale on February 6, 2023, before it became official on February 7, 2023. In December 2022, his bid was accepted by suspended team owner Robert Sarver to purchase the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury basketball teams for $4 billion, pending league approval.
Mat Ishbia is chairman and CEO of Michigan-based mortgage lender United Wholesale Mortgage, now UWM Holdings, founded by his father Jeff in 1986. He owns a 71% stake in the company, which went public through a merger with a blank check company in 2021. Forbes lists his net worth as of February 2023 at $5.5 billion USD. Launched as a side gig while Jeff worked as an attorney for his day job, UWM grew to become America’s largest wholesale lender in 2015. Mat joined the firm in 2003 after graduating from Michigan State and became CEO in 2013. His brother Justin is also a billionaire thanks to his 22% stake in the company.
Mat’s wife, Emily Ishbia, is a model and a blogger. She has been featured in various magazines as a result of her hard work and dedication. Although Emily has a few social media accounts, she rarely uses them. In 2014, she wed Mat and the couple now has three children—two sons and a daughter. Emily talked about being a mother. She claimed that she found vitro fertilization to be quite challenging. She believed that at the time, having children was something that was required of people. Ishbia struggled to conceive her first child and feared losing her pregnancy, so she had IVF for two of her three pregnancies.
Her website states that Mat Ishbia’s wife is 5’6″ “tall and 125 pounds heavy. Additionally, she has a tonne of blog entries on her website that highlight fascinating aspects of her experience. Emily Ishbia, has played a significant role in his life. They’ve been dating for a while, and Emily has encouraged Mat in both his business endeavors and basketball career.
In 1986, Mat Ishbia’s father Jeff Ishbia started and served as chairman of United Wholesale Mortgage. Mat began working for the mortgage company in 2003, and ten years later, he was named CEO. Jeff Ishbia currently holds a position on the board of the business he created. The businessman also serves as managing partner of the law company Ishbia & Gagleard, P.C. because of his more than 40 years of legal experience.
The law company focuses on transactional, corporate, and real estate law. One year after founding United Wholesale Mortgage, Mat Ishbia’s father also founded it. In addition to these two firms, Jeff Ishbia is also active in a number of other industries, such as home security, insurance, the auto sector, and more. The successful businessman was honored by Ernst & Young in 2013 as the Michigan/Ohio Entrepreneur of the Year.
Mat has a brother Justin who is a private equity investor, being a founding partner of Shore Capital Partners. He also joins his younger brother Mathew in being part of a new majority ownership for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association and Phoenix Mercury of the Women’s National Basketball Association. He is also a minority owner of Nashville SC, Nashville’s Major League Soccer team.
