Not one to slow down, Walter started Sage more than 30 years ago with partner Zack Neumeyer and has only moved forward, fast. As CEO of Sage Hospitality, he directs all company operations including management, real estate investment, and brand development, with an emphasis on community giving and teaching the next generation of great leaders. He also partnered with Sage Restaurant Group’s Peter Karpinski in 2006 to create high-volume restaurants within urban hotels, upping the value and revenue for Sage investors.

Results driven and creative, Walter is a member of the Union Station Alliance, the group responsible for revitalizing Denver Union Station and creating the high-performing Crawford Hotel. He created Sage’s art program which provides locally curated art in newly built or renovated hotels. Now, he is leading Sage toward a new adventure, creating places that people want to go to, not through, by cultivating new experiences within the walls of Sage Hotels and Restaurants.

Setting the trend for Cornell University graduates at Sage, Walter graduated from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University in a year that he refuses to disclose. He is a member of Marriott International’s Owner Advisory Board American Hotel Lodging Association Government Affairs Committee as well as a board member of Visit Denver, which inducted him into the Denver & Colorado Tourism Hall of Fame in 2010. In Denver his community impact is prominent as co-creator of Amp the Cause, the Downtown Denver Partnership, the Children’s Hospital Foundation, and the Metropolitan State University Denver Board of Trustees.