WILLY WALKER is chairman and chief executive officer of Walker & Dunlop. Under his leadership, the company has grown from a small, family-owned business to become one of the largest commercial real estate finance and advisory service firms in the United States and internationally. The company has been recognized by Great Place To Work nine years in a row, and is among Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For® this year. Walker received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2011, was named “Financier of the Year” in 2017 and 2020 by Commercial Property Executive, and was selected as a Most Admired CEO by the Denver Business Journal in 2024. He is a graduate of St. Lawrence University and holds an MBA from Harvard. Walker serves on the board of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation. He created and hosts the Walker Webcast, that has over twenty-three million views and downloads and 250 episodes. The weekly webcast brings brilliant minds from broad and varied backgrounds to share “Insights for Life.”

Photo credit: David Rodriguez