2025 Program

9:10AM - 10:00AM Keynote Address

Willy Walker

Location: Klarman Hall Mainstage

Willy Walker is Chairman and CEO 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 and advisory firms in the United States and internationally. 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 eight of the last eleven 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 and 2020 by Commercial Property Executive. 

Mr. Walker received his master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree from St. Lawrence University. Mr. Walker serves on the board of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Foundation. 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.