53: Building the largest multifamily lender in the nation, with Willy Walker CEO of Walker & Dunlop

About this episode

Willy Walker discusses scaling Walker & Dunlop into a national real estate finance platform and shares leadership lessons from his experiences.

Willy Walker joins Onward to share how he scaled a small, local mortgage shop into a national real estate finance platform—what he got right, what he’d do differently, and the leadership lessons he learned the hard way. We talk about the pivotal decisions that unlocked Walker & Dunlop’s growth, how to lead through a crisis (2008 and COVID), what it really means to be a public-company CEO, and why he’s cautiously optimistic heading into 2026. — For a deeper dive into these insights and more, be sure to listen to the full episode of the Onward podcast. Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at Onward@Fundrise.com. Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise . Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada. About Fundrise With over 2 million users, Fundrise is America's largest direct-to-investor alternative asset investment platform. Since 2012, our mission has been to build a better financial system by empowering the individual. We make it easier and more efficient than ever for anyone to invest in institutional-quality private alternative assets — all at the touch of a button. Please see fundrise.com/oc for…

People in this episode

Host: Ben Miller

Guest: Willy Walker

Topics covered

• multifamily lending
• real estate finance
• leadership lessons
• crisis management
• public company CEO

Keywords

• multifamily lender
• real estate
• mortgage
• leadership
• crisis
• public company
• growth

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Walker & Dunlop

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