James Walker Jr. says he has always been looking to elevate everybody — Black, white and LGBTQ. Motivated to succeed by his father, who despite having only a ninth-grade education started and ran his own awning business in the family’s largely white Northern New York suburb, Walker was the first in his family to attend college. A client of his mother, who cleaned houses to help pay her son’s tuition at historically Black Clark Atlanta University, arranged an internship for Walker at Goldman Sachs, which resulted in a job. A move soon after began a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, first in operations and later, after much internal salesmanship, as a successful broker and sales manager.
He joined forces with Rita Gaffney in 2000, noting “the Black man/white Irish woman combination is unusual.” In 2009, the two moved to Morgan Stanley, where Walker manages the firm’s business in Dutchess County. Active for many years in several community groups, Walker was honored by Merrill Lynch for outstanding stewardship and is active on Morgan Stanley’s National Diversity and Inclusion Council. “At the top, Wall Street understands that diversity is more than OK,” Walker said. “The frozen middle has to learn that diverse teams are crushing it.”
— Evan Cooper