Walker & Associates was founded in 1997 by W. Craig Walker. Craig is the President and Chief Investment Officer. He is a Registered Principal and Branch Manager of an independently owned branch of Raymond James Financial Services, Inc.
Craig has over 25 years of a senior level experience at some of Wall Street's largest brokerage firms. Craig's investment discipline focuses on scrupulous risk analysis, asset allocation and individual security selection. He has extensive expertise in financial, retirement, and estate planning. Craig has a proven track record of diversified investment strategies for a wide variety of clients including corporations, foundations, and individuals. He is adept at developing and maintaining mutually profitable business relationships. Business associates have described Craig as conservative, responsible, level headed, honest, good listener, good sense of humor, easy to work with, dynamic, enthusiastic and energetic.
Prior to founding our firm, Craig was Vice President, Senior Quantum Portfolio Manager of Prudential Securities. He managed discretionary equity accounts for corporations, foundations, and high-net-worth individuals. He was elected to serve as a member of the investment committee responsible for an neary $1 billion in-house managed account program. In addition, he provided investment management consulting services.
Craig's earlier experience was at Smith Barney where he was a Vice President specializing in investment management consulting, at Bateman Eichler Hill Richards where he was an Associate Vice President handling corporate and individual accounts, and at First Affiliated Securities where he was an Account Executive.
He completed the Investment Management Analyst program at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and holds a certificate in Financial Planning from Kaplan University. Craig graduated with a BA from the University of California - Irvine.
Craig is active in the community. He served as a Commissioner on the City of Fullerton Investment Advisory Committee from 1997 to 1999, advising the city on its investment policies and portfolio. He was the Vice President of the Porsche Owners Club from 1998-2000. Presently, Craig serves as Vice President of Financial Management of the Muckenthaler Cultural Center Foundation, as Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Boys and Girls Club of Fullerton, and is a member of Fullerton Main Rotary Club. Recently he was asked to be a founding member of the California Highway Patrol’s 11-99 Foundation Professional Advisory Council.
Craig, his wife, Leesa, and their twins, Will and Sarah, live in Sunny Hills in Fullerton, California. Craig's hobbies include reading, running, golf, computers, flying and driving race cars. Before deciding to focus on raising the children, Leesa was an airborne news and traffic reporter for KFWB radio in Los Angeles, where she won two Golden Mic awards for her live news coverage of the LA Fires and the OJ Simpson chase. Will and Sarah attend Fullerton High, where they participate in tennis, choir and speech & debate.
Dawn has worked with Walker & Associates for more than 13 years. In that time she has risen from administrative assistant to being responsible for all operational aspects of the firm. She is Series 7 licensed. Dawn graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business with emphasis in Finance from California State University at Long Beach. In her spare time she volunteers with Crittenton Services for Children and Families in Fullerton, teaches aerobics, snowboards and races mountain and road bikes. Dawn, her husband Cory, and their baby daughter Isabella live in Long Beach.
Maria joined Walker & Associates in July of 2010 bringing with her over 8 years of experience in client services, support and marketing. Prior to joining Walker & Associates, Maria worked for Muzak, LLC in their sales and marketing department. In her free time Maria enjoys hiking, film and spending time with her family.
About Raymond James
Raymond James is one of the largest independent financial services firms in the United States. Since its beginning in 1962, it has always been a different kind of company – embracing long-term planning and methodical decision-making while staying uncompromisingly client focused. When other firms were simply buying and selling stocks or mutual funds, Raymond James focused on financial planning to help individuals reach their goals. It was the first firm to pioneer that concept – and today it supports its advisors with access to a full range of comprehensive resources, helping them to do the same.
- More than 6,500 financial advisors
- 2.4 million client accounts
- 2,600 locations (United States, Canada and abroad)
- $372 billion in client assets
- $38 billion managed by its subsidiary asset managers
Raymond James Financial was named the best full-service broker in the 2011 SmartMoney annual broker survey for the third time in four years – ranking above Edward Jones, Wells Fargo, UBS, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.
For more information, visit raymondjames.com.
SmartMoney does not endorse any product or service of Raymond James. The survey criteria included performance of recommended stocks, customer satisfaction, and user-friendliness of account statements and websites. Past performance may not be indicative of future results.