Title: Senior Vice President, Municipal Finance
Firm: Drexel Hamilton, LLC
Age: 39
Eric Eberth received employment offers in 2010 from large bulge-bracket firms, but instead chose Drexel Hamilton.
“They said they can’t match what JPMorgan, Fidelity or a couple of other firms were offering, but they would build a firm dedicated to hiring military veterans,” he said, himself a service-disabled Army veteran who also served in the Air Force and Marine Corps.
“Over the years, from the CEO at the top to everybody on down, they still believe in that. At Drexel Hamilton, I couldn’t be happier.”
Eric, the firm’s senior vice president for municipal finance, has worked on billions of dollars’ worth of deals. Based in San Francisco, he collaborates with the investment banking and capital markets teams, and works closely with the New York office.
Early in his tenure, he teamed with longtime underwriter Tom Mead as the two built out the muni side.
Eric, from Salem, Ore., received his master’s degree in business administration from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and worked as an unpaid intern at airports in San Francisco and Sacramento, where he now lives.
“I’ve been trained to assess a situation and respond in whatever way the team needs,” he said, drawing on his military background.
Eric volunteers with the Wounded Warrior Project by taking disabled veterans camping, boating and scuba diving – all personal hobbies. “When disabled veterans get out of the military, some of them haven’t been able to see the next step,” he said.
As part of a mission trip with his church, Eric volunteered to build several homes and a church in Mexico.
“We were just a two-person department in 2011. I was focused on getting us approved with issuers, and that left Eric to do pretty much everything else – and he did it.” Tom Mead, managing director, Drexel Hamilton
