The Directors of Walker Group have paid tribute to Founder and Chairman Lang Walker who passed away peacefully at home in Sydney with his family by his side. The Billionaire property developer was age 78.
Lang formed Walker over 50 years ago and built a world class business shaping the Group into Australia’s largest privately owned property company. In recent years Lang’s strong focus has been on the Group’s future.
Lang made the strategically defining decision some time ago to hold a substantial property portfolio encompassing over $9 billion of prime assets in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. This portfolio will continue to be managed, curated and added to by the executive team for the long term.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer David Gallant said Lang has been recognised and regarded as a great visionary, an inspirational leader, and the first to creatively tackle the challenge of urban transformation.
Together with his team, he has delivered exceptional placemaking concepts that can be seen in iconic developments such as Broadway Shopping Centre, Rhodes Peninsula, Woolloomooloo Wharf, King Street Wharf, Hope Island Resort, Collins Square and Parramatta Square.
Over the past decade Lang has worked to ensure the company’s $36 billion project pipeline will be in good hands, with a smooth transition to his executive team having been implemented early last year. Extensive provisions and arrangements are now firmly in place to clearly define and govern the Group’s future.
“Lang’s vision will remain an enduring force through the Walker DNA and the Walker Way which he actively passed on – it is embedded in our culture and our modus operandi.”
Maurice Terzini and Lang Walker at Parramatta Square, NSW
“The vital importance of business continuity and the need to maintain key relationships to retain our pre-eminent position has been instilled in all of us,” said Gallant.
Today Walker is the trusted landlord for over 50 major Australian organisations along with multiple State and Federal Government Departments. Many thousands of Australians live, work and play in developments created by Walker.
The business will continue to deliver award-winning developments both across the nation and offshore, growing the investment portfolio to $20 billion over the next decade.
Lang’s generosity and love of helping others is well-known and also extends to the Walker Family Foundation and its philanthropic partnerships in major community projects, including the Powerhouse Museum at Parramatta, the new Lang Walker AO Medical Research Building – Macarthur and support for Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, to name but a few.
Lang leaves the Walker team fully prepared and committed to preserving his legacy by delivering exceptional places and precincts, driven by the culture he fostered over five successful decades.
