Let’s Get Real: Most Major Problems Originate With People
Walker & Dunlop’s Donald King III kicks off MHN’s new interview series with a look at the wins, setbacks and leadership lessons that shaped his career.
After more than 30 years in commercial real estate finance, Donald King III, executive vice president at Walker & Dunlop, has come to see leadership, risk and decision-making through a people-first lens.
Some of the most powerful lessons of his career came from the deals he closed, but many others came from organizational dynamics, misaligned perspectives or poor communication that made it harder for people to succeed.
King began his career as an appraiser before moving into mortgage banking and building expertise in multifamily finance, affordable housing, tax credit transactions and agency lending. While that breadth of experience shaped his technical judgement, his leadership style was sharpened by the teams he managed and the business cultures he helped build.
In the inaugural installment of Let’s Get Real, our new interview series exploring highs and lows of CRE careers, King reflects on the accomplishment he’s most proud of, the situations he would approach differently today and the principles that continue to guide his approach to business—and to people.
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Give us the 60-second version of your career. How did you get to where you are today, and what drew you to commercial real estate finance?
King: Today, I co-head Walker & Dunlop’s Capital Markets Group, overseeing businesses that include investment sales and debt and equity placements, both in the U.S. and internationally. The path to getting here wasn’t necessarily planned, but it was shaped by a series of opportunities that allowed me to learn the business from the ground up.
I began my career as a commercial real estate appraiser before moving into mortgage banking. One of the advantages of working in a smaller office early in my career was that I was exposed to every side of the lending business—origination, servicing and asset management. Looking back, that broad exposure proved invaluable because it gave me a much deeper understanding of commercial real estate finance than I would have gained from a more specialized role. It also taught me that the best leaders in our industry understand not only how business is originated, but also how assets are underwritten, serviced and managed throughout their lifecycle.
Over time, I developed expertise across multifamily finance, affordable housing, low-income housing tax credit transactions and agency lending through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD programs. That breadth of experience opened the door to leadership opportunities and ultimately led me to Walker & Dunlop, where I’ve spent the last 14 years helping build and expand the firm’s capital markets platform.
Looking back on more than 30 years in the industry, is there a deal, decision or turning point that you see as especially formative for your career?
King: One of the most significant turning points in my career happened somewhat accidentally. Early on, I began working with several pension fund advisors as their debt advisor. They were looking to increase leverage across multi-asset portfolios, and at the time, multifamily debt offered some of the most attractive pricing and terms available.
As those clients sought financing, they increasingly assigned me their multifamily assets. That experience launched my specialization in multifamily finance and, ultimately, in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lending. Had that opportunity not presented itself, I likely would not have followed the same career path or had many of the leadership opportunities that followed.
In hindsight, specializing in the GSE business proved to be an excellent place to build a career. The capital is designed to be counter-cyclical, providing liquidity in both strong and challenging markets. Being part of a segment of the industry that remains active across economic cycles has been both professionally rewarding and strategically important.
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Tell us a few details about the one accomplishment you’re most proud of, not just because of the outcome, but because of what it took to get there.
King: One accomplishment I’m particularly proud of involved the integration of two lending organizations. Following the combination of the teams, we found ourselves operating with two chief underwriters and two different ways of doing business. Neither approach was necessarily better or worse, but having two separate cultures and operating models within a single platform was unsustainable.
Rather than selecting one group’s process and imposing it on the other, we took a different approach. We effectively started from scratch. We reviewed every policy, procedure, template, legal document and workflow across production, underwriting, closing and legal functions.
We formed cross-functional teams composed of professionals from each discipline and challenged them to design the most customer service-oriented process possible while still meeting our fiduciary responsibilities and the requirements of our primary capital providers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The process required tremendous collaboration, but it created something even more valuable: complete organizational buy-in. Nearly everyone across the platform had a hand in building the new system.
The true validation came later. Borrowers began telling us that transactions they expected to be difficult turned out to be the smoothest financing experiences they had ever had. New originators joining the company would sit through their first loan committee meetings and spend more time talking about the quality of the process than the loans themselves. That’s when I realized we had accomplished something special. We didn’t simply solve an integration challenge—we built a better way of doing business.
When you reflect upon that specific accomplishment, what do you think you understood, anticipated or executed particularly well in that situation?
King: What we executed particularly well was recognizing that the challenge wasn’t about choosing one group’s process over another. It was about creating a shared vision and earning genuine buy-in across the organization.
By involving people from every discipline in designing the new process, we created ownership rather than compliance. People weren’t being asked to adopt someone else’s ideas—they were helping build the future state themselves.
We also focused relentlessly on the customer experience. Instead of asking how we had always done things, we asked how we could create the most efficient and service-oriented process possible while still managing risk appropriately. That mindset allowed us to challenge assumptions, eliminate unnecessary friction and create a platform that ultimately served both our clients and our organization better.
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Now let’s talk about a time when things didn’t go as planned, which is often when the most useful lessons happen. Is there a deal, decision or situation you would approach differently today?
King: Early in my management career, I accepted a national leadership role with a company headquartered in New York while the division I managed was based in Dallas. At the time, I focused primarily on the role itself—the scope of responsibility, the opportunity and the business I would be leading.
What I underestimated was the importance of where that role sat within the organization. I was so focused on the opportunity that I didn’t spend enough time evaluating the organizational structure around it. Being physically separated from headquarters made it more difficult to stay connected to broader corporate strategy, build relationships with key decision-makers and influence decisions that ultimately affected the business I was responsible for running.
The experience wasn’t a failure by any means, but if I were making that decision again, I would spend much more time evaluating how closely connected the role was to the organization’s leadership structure and decision-making process.
What did that specific experience teach you about making decisions?
King: It taught me that when evaluating opportunities, you have to assess more than the job itself. You also have to evaluate the environment in which you’ll be expected to succeed.
When I later accepted a leadership role with a company headquartered in Massachusetts, the initial plan was for me to remain in a satellite office. Based on my previous experience, I pushed to relocate to the home office instead. Looking back, that was one of the better career decisions I made.
Being co-located with other senior leaders created opportunities for collaboration, relationship-building and information-sharing that are difficult to replicate from a distance…
The broader lesson is that organizational dynamics matter. Success isn’t determined solely by talent or effort. It is also influenced by how connected you are to the people, information and decisions that shape the business.
Some of the most valuable lessons come from conversations that happen before and after meetings, walking down the hallway, or stopping by someone’s office.
Given your work across multifamily finance, FHA lending and capital markets, what patterns or red flags do you recognize faster now than you did earlier in your career?
King: One thing I’ve learned over the course of my career is that most major problems don’t originate with the real estate itself—they originate with people. Early on, I spent most of my time focused on the asset, the underwriting and the numbers. Those things are obviously important, but experience has taught me to pay just as much attention to the people involved in a transaction.
Today, I look much more closely at things like transparency, consistency and behavior. When information changes over time, when explanations don’t quite line up, when someone is reluctant to provide details, or when incentives appear misaligned among the parties involved, those can be more meaningful warning signs than anything you’ll find in a spreadsheet.
The industry’s experience with increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes over the past several years reinforced that lesson. It reminded all of us that risk management is not simply about validating numbers. It’s about understanding motivations, evaluating controls and continuously asking what risks might not be immediately visible.
The biggest difference between where I am today and where I was earlier in my career is that I spend less time looking for problems in the real estate and more time looking for potential problems in the information, incentives and people surrounding the transaction.
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For someone starting out in commercial real estate finance today, what’s one piece of advice you’d give? Is there an experience that taught you that lesson?
King: If I could give one piece of advice to someone starting out today, it would be to optimize for learning rather than titles or compensation early in your career.
Looking back, some of the most valuable experiences I had were the ones that exposed me to different parts of the business. I started as an appraiser, then worked in origination, servicing and asset management. Later, I gained experience in multifamily finance, affordable housing, low-income housing tax credits, and agency lending. At the time, I wasn’t consciously building a career plan. I was simply taking opportunities to learn. In hindsight, that breadth of experience became one of the greatest advantages of my career because it allowed me to understand how the different pieces of the business fit together.
I would also encourage young professionals to spend as much time as possible learning from the people around them. Some of the most valuable lessons come from conversations that happen before and after meetings, walking down the hallway, or stopping by someone’s office. Those interactions are difficult to replicate virtually and can accelerate your development tremendously.
Finally, embrace artificial intelligence. AI is going to change our industry, and the people who benefit most won’t be the ones who resist it—they’ll be the ones who learn how to use it. The biggest opportunity isn’t simply doing today’s tasks faster. It’s rethinking how work gets done and finding entirely new ways to create value.
