Ari Hirt is a managing director of Capital Markets | Institutional Advisory at Walker & Dunlop and is based in New York, New York. In this role, he is responsible for the firm’s placement and execution efforts for commercial real estate developers, owners, and investors nationwide, and oversees business development, including sourcing and evaluating new financing opportunities. Throughout his career, he has completed more than $20 billion in debt and equity transactions for institutional and private commercial real estate owners and developers and is frequently cited in national and industry publications.

Prior to joining Walker & Dunlop, Hirt served as a managing director at AKS Capital Partners, which was later acquired by Walker & Dunlop, where he helped build the firm into a top-producing capital markets advisory platform. Earlier in his career, he held senior lending roles at Nomura Asset Capital Corporation and KeyBank.

Hirt earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Yeshiva University and a master’s degree in business and finance from New York University Stern School of Business. He founded the Yeshiva University Real Estate Executive Circle and serves as an adjunct professor of finance at the university’s Sy Syms School of Business. He has also lectured at Columbia University and the Real Estate Board of New York and is active with UJA Federation’s Real Estate Council and AIPAC’s real estate network, where he serves as vice chair of the New Leadership Network.