President and Board Member
Howard W. Smith, president, oversees the loan origination and investments sales operations of Walker & Dunlop. He is a member of the Company’s Board of Directors and serves on the Company’s executive committee. Mr. Smith came to Walker & Dunlop in November of 1980 and became a part of our management team in 1988. In 2004, he took on his role as executive vice president and chief operating officer and assumed the role of president in April 2015. He has also been a board member of Walker & Dunlop, LLC or its predecessors since that time.
Mr. Smith has extensive knowledge of the Company’s operations, having spent his entire career at Walker & Dunlop. In his capacity as chief operating officer and now as President, Mr. Smith provides our board with management’s perspective on our business operations and conditions, which is crucial to our board’s performance of its oversight function.
Beyond the Company, Mr. Smith is a member of the National Multi Housing Council Board of Directors and the Advisory Board to the Williams School of Commerce Economics and Politics at Washington and Lee University. He served as chairman of the Advisory Council to the Fannie Mae DUS Peer Group from 2007 to 2008, again from 2009 to 2010, and again from 2013 to 2014. Mr. Smith is a former trustee and finance committee chair of Episcopal High School and a former senior warden at Christ Church Georgetown. Mr. Smith earned his Bachelor of Arts in economics from Washington & Lee University.