Michael Ianno

Michael Ianno has traveled a long and winding road to end up at Walker & Dunlop.

The director, who works as part of W&D’s new New York City capital markets team (launched in February), has contributed to the execution of tens of billions of debt placements in the last few years.

Ianno previously joined the heads of W&D’s NYC capital markets team — Aaron Appel, Keith Kurland, and Jonathan and Adam Schwartz — in their move from JLL to founding advisory firm AKS Capital Partners, before W&D bought the outfit. The team originated more than $14 billion in debt and equity in 2019.

Ianno and fellow director Sean Bastian are co-chief operating officers — of sorts — within this mammoth advisory team. They tackle general day-to-day happenings, ensuring the operation is running smoothly, and assisting in deal sourcing and execution.

Ianno has been involved in numerous high-profile transactions with this W&D team over the last few years. Just to name a couple: The $749 million refinancing of the 1.1 million-square-foot 335 Madison Avenue above Grand Central Terminal; and the $807.3 million in bridge debt the team originated in 2019 for the Crown Building retail condominium.

“We’ve continued to work on the same deals we always have pre- and post-COVID [lockdown], but it’s more difficult to close riskier transactions,” Ianno, a University of South Carolina graduate, said. “Joining Walker & Dunlop before COVID-19 hit helped, as they are a top Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seller and servicer, which helped broaden our platform.”