Willy Walker is Chairman & CEO of Bethesda, Maryland-based commercial real estate lending firm Walker & Dunlop. During his tenure, he has grown the company from a privately-held family business worth $50M to a public company with a $1.6B market cap. The company was ranked the No. 2 Fannie Mae lender and the No. 3 Freddie Mac lender in 2016. In its first seven years on the New York Stock Exchange, Walker & Dunlop has seen its shares appreciate 547%. The company was #17 on Fortune’s 2017 list of “Fastest Growing Public Companies”.
Mr. Walker received his M.B.A. from Harvard University and a B.A in political science and government from Saint Lawrence University. He received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2011 and was named “Financier of the Year” in 2017 by Commercial Mortgage Observer. Mr. Walker currently serves on the boards of the Federal City Council, the Children’s National Medical Center, the Mortgage Bankers Association, Blue Drop and St. Albans School.