Meet the NYCREW Member: Laura Walker

A fierce desire for independence led Laura Walker to the finance industry - today, her desire to lead and mentor others is just as fierce for the 2014 president of the New York chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women's Network (NYCREW). Her current post as a senior vice president of the specialized financial intermediaries group within Citi Commercial Bank is the result of a 20-year career at Citi, and jobs from her teen years on. "I've always wanted to make my own money and be independent, from my first job selling newspapers," Walker said. "The finance industry was a terrific place to do that, and coming to Citi gave me opportunities to grow as a professional in one of the premier financial institutions in the world." Her early roles at Citi included retail banking management, residential mortgage originations, and financial control and project management. Today, she is responsible for managing the group's largest commercial clients in the United States, working with: commercial real estate developers; property managers, brokers and agents; REITS, investment money management firms (private equity firms, investment companies and hedge funds, trust companies); title companies; settlement companies/law firms; mortgage companies, credit unions, commercial loan servicing: insurance companies; foreign exchange and international banking entities. Walker has been a seven-time recipient of Citi's "Circle of Excellence Award/CitiStar" presented to Citibank's Best of the Best in each job category nationally. At the same time, she has been active with a number of organizations including the International Council of Shopping Centers, the National Association of Industrial and Operating Properties, American Real Estate Women, The Real Estate Finance Association, The Association for Corporate Growth and The American Heart Association. But her career with CREW and NYCREW has risen as spectacularly as her career at Citi. Walker is a member of CREW's national finance committee and one of the five delegates nationally on its nominating committee, as well as the current New York chapter president. In 2012 and 2011, she co-chaired the NYCREW sponsorship committee and received the NYCREW Vanguard Leadership and Pioneer Spirit Award. "NYCREW gives its members access to decisionmakers, which certainly helps Citi and my business," Walker said. "But it also gives me an opportunity to mentor others, just as I received the benefit of wonderful mentors during my career." Continuing to guide others in the industry is just one part of her goal for her term, she notes. Building membership is another. "The core of NYCREW is its membership, and growing that membership benefits all of us," she says. "Every new member increases our ability to do business together, and that benefits the bottom line for each of us personally, and for our businesses." Laura Walker * Citibank 750 Washington Blvd., 7th Floor, Stamford, CT 06904 Phone: 203-975-6867 * Email: [email protected] www.citi.com