Eric’s great-grandparents emigrated from Norway, moving their family to the plains of South Dakota and a logging town in northern Wisconsin before finally settling in Stoughton. His grandfather started his real estate business during the height of the Great Depression. After serving in the military, Eric’s father took over the business in 1955, and continued to build on the opportunities he’d been given. Eric was born and raised in Madison, attending East High School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a classic entrepreneur – he founded and managed his first business in his twenties, and went on to start and build many others. He then expanded to buying troubled community banks and turning them around. Eric has made a career out of rolling up his sleeves, getting businesses back on the right track, and building for the future. While in his thirties, Eric also started The Hovde Foundation alongside his brother, Steve. They have built ten “Hovde Homes” to date, providing shelter, care, and love to vulnerable children and families right here in Wisconsin and all across the world. The foundation supports a variety of additional local charities, including food banks, literacy initiatives, the Clean Lakes Alliance, and works to end sex trafficking in partnership with Thorn. Eric and his wife Sharon have also been long-time partners in the fight to cure Multiple Sclerosis (MS) – a chronic autoimmune disease that Eric himself was diagnosed with at age 27. He knows first-hand how a chronic illness can turn your life upside down and affect an entire family, and is proud to support clinical research efforts and outreach programs through the foundation in order to help others going through the same struggle.