Walt joined Dean Realty Co. in August of 2017, transitioning from serving on the company’s Board of Directors to becoming president and chief executive officer. Walt brings dozens of years of experience to the position, where he will assess and manage the company’s assets and position the company for future growth. He will lead Dean Realty’s team of 30 employees. Walt was a member of the Dean Realty Board of Directors since 2007. He has been in the real estate business since 1970, and received his CCIM designation in 1975. He has participated in exchanges, syndications and development, including marinas, mini-storage and fast food commercial real estate brokerage, as well as a development and management company in St. Joseph, Michigan. Walt moved to Kansas City in 1983 to lead a 40-person commercial real estate company for seven years, and then spent 15 years with Colliers Turley Martin Tucker where he became a senior vice president and principal of a firm leading nine Midwestern offices of 200 commercial brokers and 900 employees. In 2008 Walt was asked to become the director of the newly formed Lewis White Real Estate Center in the Block School of Business at the University of Missouri Kansas City. He started the Master’s Degree Program in Entrepreneurial Real Estate and served as the director and assistant professor at UMKC for five years. As of January 2015, Walt has become the chief executive officer and executive vice president of the CCIM Institute, an international commercial real estate education association with 13,000 members in over 30 countries headquartered in Chicago.