By The Drill Down Staff
Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008 championing hope and change, but unless you were one of his best friends, he may not have been talking about your hopes of change.
President Obama’s longtime friend, Marty Nesbitt can attest to that fact, and on the latest episode of the Drill Down podcast, Peter Schweizer and Eric Eggers unpack the deep financial links between these two friends and how their relationship could still be paying dividends in President Biden’s new administration.
The Chicago Tribune gave Nesbitt the distinction of being Obama’s “First Friend,” and there’s no better demonstration of this than the story of the University of Phoenix. Following his re-election in 2012, President Obama targeted for-profit colleges, such as the University of Phoenix, for engaging in a wide range of practices many found objectionable. In the wake of his administration’s new regulations for the industry, the university’s parent company, Apollo Education Group, saw steep declines in its stock prices.
That was when several investor groups, including Nesbitt’s own Vistria Group, swooped in to buy up the company.
Fast forward to 2021 when Obama’s right-hand man, Joe Biden, becomes president. His American Rescue Plan awarded millions to the University of Phoenix, where Nesbitt still sits as a trustee. But wait, there’s more! The Rescue Plan also allocated billions of dollars in loans to American Airlines, where Nesbitt is on the board of directors.
The coronavirus pandemic has dashed the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans, but if you’re Marty Nesbitt, friendship has not only yielded hope for your companies, but also billions of dollars’ worth of change.
