Willy Walker- Transformational Leader (#53) - a podcast by Coe Enterprises

from 2021-11-02T08:20

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Bio





Willy Walker is chairman and chief executive officer of Walker & Dunlop. Under Mr. Walker’s leadership, Walker & Dunlop has grown from a small, family-owned business to become one of the largest commercial real estate finance companies in the United States. Walker & Dunlop is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and in its first ten years as a public company has seen its shares appreciate over 800%. The firm was also #17 on Fortune’s 2017 list of “Fastest Growing Public Companies”, and has been named a Best Workplace for five of the past six years by the Great Place to Work® Institute. Mr. Walker 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 received his master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree from St. Lawrence University. He formerly served on the boards of St. Albans School, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and Children’s National Medical Center. Mr. Walker is also a member of the Real Estate Roundtable. Mr. Walker is an avid runner, skier and cyclist, and has run the Boston Marathon in 2:36





Show Notes





  • Current Role- His role has changed dramatically over the years as the firm has grown exponentially (4:25)
  • Big company capabilities with a small company feel (5:10)
  • Travel frequently to keep the culture “small company” (5:45)
  • Keep the “Walker Way” constant as a culture for the company (6:10)




Origin Story





  • Father, Mallory Walker, was his predecessor as CEO (8:00)
  • Mother, Diana Walker, was involved in politics as White House photographer for Time Magazine (8:15)
  • Parents were DC business people and political world with each of his parent’s influences (8:40)
  • Away to boarding school and college
  • Went to Latin America for 10 years (9:30)
    • Had no “grounding” there and had to establish his own relationships and reputation outside his family influences (10:30)
    • Got a letter from friends in the US telling him of their exploits and he was reading books (11:10)
    • Instead of going to Wall Street he went to Paraguay in 1989 after school and spent three years there (12:45)
    • After going to HBS he then returned to Chile to work for a venture capital firm (13:45)
    • Subsequently, he went to TPG and then a call center company called Teletec and went to Argentina (15:00)
    • Moved to London to run Teletec in Europe (16:00)
    • Ten years of non real estate investment banking experience (16:50)
  • Returned to DC to run Walker & Dunlop (17:15)
    • Had been on the board from 1998 to 2003 before taking the reins of the company (18:20)
    • When he arrived he noticed that politics was talked about in the office and he wanted to eliminate that unless it relates to business (20:10)
    • Looked carefully at the fundamentals of the business and its vulnerability due to the brokerage aspect of the business due to its volatility (21:25)
    • Servicing portfolio when he joined was $3B and is now $112B generating $300M in annual recurring re

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