Sheri Thompson

Sheri Thompson manages what turned out to be one of 2020’s most robust and active producers of agency multifamily debt through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The 27-year real estate finance veteran rejoined Walker & Dunlop (W&D) at the beginning of 2019, at the behest of one of her mentors, W&D President Howard Smith. Thompson had previously worked at W&D (then Green Park Financial) for two years in the mid-1990s as an underwriter of multifamily debt.

Smith called her back to run the firm’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lending practice nationally, and take on everything “from a leadership and operations perspective,” Thompson said, adding with a modest touch that it “was gutsy for Walker & Dunlop to offer that to me, and it was interesting for me to take it.”

In July 2020, she was elevated to executive vice president and FHA head, moving up from the role of senior vice president that she took on when she reunited with the company.

Based out of the firm’s Bethesda, Md., office, the multifamily finance whiz currently oversees a high-profile, 80-person national team that originates, underwrites and closes agency loans at an impressive clip. W&D’s HUD and FHA lending has grown over the last couple of years since Thompson took the helm, and the firm ranked No. 5 in 2020 in HUD loan production. (W&D, overall, was the No. 1 multifamily capital provider in the U.S., by volume, according to its website.)

“I have a great team that really knows HUD, and that’s allowed me to be a thought leader and think about how to move the business in new directions,” Thompson said. She sits on W&D’s executive, administrative and strategy committees, putting her in a position to help guide and govern one of the nation’s top apartment lenders.

Thompson also either leads, is involved in, or has helped launch a variety of programs and initiatives — internally at W&D and externally — focused on diversity and inclusion (D&I). Thompson and Smith have made it a goal of hers to work to help put W&D at the forefront of such efforts, she said.

“It’s a journey of love, I will say. I came to Walker & Dunlop because I saw an opportunity to make an impact there,” Thompson said. “It’s a win-win for me and the company.”