John O’Toole is the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Walker & Dunlop Affordable Housing and group head of Walker & Dunlop Affordable Equity, based in Chicago. In this role, he develops Walker & Dunlop Affordable Housing’s strategic vision across its equity, debt, and investment sales platforms, and translates this into operational success across its equity platform. O’Toole has nearly 20 years of leadership experience in real estate finance, operations and strategic growth.

Prior to his current position, O’Toole served as the head of strategy and operations for Walker & Dunlop Affordable Equity, where he drove the company’s strategic planning. Before that, he led Walker & Dunlop’s seniors housing and healthcare bridge lending group within Walker & Dunlop Investment Partners. Before joining the firm, O’Toole held senior leadership roles at Lument and its predecessor entities, ORIX Real Estate Capital and Red Capital Group. He led product execution teams responsible for the deployment, underwriting and asset management of proprietary and third-party managed capital, spanning senior and subordinate financing across affordable housing, conventional multifamily, seniors housing and healthcare real estate. O’Toole began his real estate career at CIT Healthcare, providing structured debt solutions to the seniors housing and healthcare industry. He previously held roles with GE Capital, Deloitte and Arthur Andersen.

O’Toole earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is a Certified Public Accountant in Massachusetts.