George Herbert Walker IV

George Herbert Walker IV (born 1969) is an American investment banker. He is the chairman and CEO of Neuberger Berman, one of the largest independent, employee-owned investment management firms. During Walker's tenure, the firm survived the implosion of its corporate parent, Lehman Brothers, was repurchased by the employees and has been amongst the industry's best performers. Walker is the first cousin once removed of 41st U.S. president George H. W. Bush, and the second cousin of 43rd president George W. Bush and Florida governor Jeb Bush. Walker was raised in St. Louis, Missouri. His parents are Kimberly Gedge and George Herbert Walker III, an investment brokerage executive and U.S. Ambassador to Hungary. He comes from a family of industrialists and financiers, originally from St. Louis, Missouri. Walker's great-grandfather, George Herbert Walker, was the founder of G. H. Walker & Co., a securities firm, which eventually became part of Merrill Lynch. His grandfather, George Herbert Walker Jr., was a co-founder of the NY Mets. His grand-aunt, Dorothy, married Senator Prescott Bush, father of U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush and grandfather of U.S. President George Walker Bush. He went to high school at St. Louis Country Day School in Ladue, Missouri. In 1986, he received an all-expense-paid scholarship from the U.S. Congress and the German Bundestag to study in Germany for the 1986-87 school year. Walker went to the University of Pennsylvania where he received the Harry S. Truman Scholarship and was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar. He was also a member of St. Anthony Hall. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and received a B.S. in finance and a B.A. in history, both summa cum laude. He also received his MBA as a Palmer Scholar from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Walker began his career on Wall Street when he joined Goldman Sachs in the Merger Department in 1992. Six years later, in 1998, Walker became one of the youngest partners in the firm's history.