Sara Walker
Senior strategist, regional director of investments
BMO Harris Bank
111 E. Kilbourn Ave., Milwaukee
Industry: Banking
Employees: 18 on Walker’s team; about 3,000 in Milwaukee market; 45,000+ companywide
Walker was senior vice president, senior portfolio manager and chief economist at Green Bay-based Associated Bank for 21 years before joining BMO in May.
The decision forced her to take a pause. “It involved so much work personally. This is something we all are told to do, be highly self-aware, know yourself, know what is important to you, your personal mission, but it’s something that I successfully pushed to the back burner for years.”
She likes being uncomfortable. “I like being stretched. I like having a little bit of panic here and there. It’s a little bit of an adrenaline rush.”
Walker is watching the 25-story BMO Tower go up on North Water Street from her office at the Milwaukee Center. She’ll move there in December 2019.
On most days, you’ll see her walking her two dogs, an Airedale terrier and a Welsh terrier, around her East Side digs. “When I walk my dogs on a beach, I cannot stop myself from picking up interesting pebbles or shells or pieces of driftwood or sea glass.”
A Kenosha native, Walker earned a bachelor’s in business from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in 1981, and an Executive MBA at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2013. “It goes back to that compulsion and drive to learn. It wasn’t easy.”
She takes her coffee with cream and a bit of Splenda.
