Relationship Builder: Weston Relies on People in the Banking Business

Written by Doug Goodnough

Banking is often about numbers, but for Walter Weston, ’07, it’s about people. The senior vice president of Healthcare Sponsor Coverage and Group Leader at Comerica Bank said relationships are the key to success.

“It’s all about relationships,” said Weston, who works and lives in the Seattle, Washington, area. “If we build a relationship with an investor in Seattle and start doing deals with them, we start learning. Then, they introduce us to their investor in New York. Because these investors often partner, they sometimes compete, but a lot of times, they cooperate. You deal with the people that you trust. You build relationships with the people who have [other] relationships.”

He also builds relationships within his team, including salespeople and risk managers, who often have competing opinions and perspectives.

“Risk managers tend to look at a glass half empty, and then sales say everything’s fine,” Weston said of those internal differences in negotiating a commercial lending deal. “There’s always this natural tension between the two. The biggest challenge is managing the needs of the bank and the clients because the bank’s goal is not to lose money. The client’s goal is to get as much money as possible, right?

“The bank needs to get repaid. It’s still a bank, but you also have to take risks because if you don’t take enough risk, you lose clients and revenue. If you take too much risk, you blow up.”

Weston said his primary focus is on private equity and venture capital-backed healthcare companies across the U.S., especially services and IT.

An economics major at Hillsdale, Weston said the education he received has been instrumental in his career success.
“I’m still somewhat math-oriented, but not anywhere near most of my counterparts,” said Weston, who took a few accounting classes at a local community college a few years ago to shore up that part of his job. “What Hillsdale helped me with was what Hillsdale does really well: it fosters conversation and doesn’t stifle conversation. That was hard for me coming out of Hillsdale, as I was used to being able to have a conversation and disagree and still be friends. I quickly realized [some] people aren’t interested in having conversations. They are interested in agreeing.”

As a high school student, he heard about Hillsdale through a friend, and his interest in Austrian economics grew when he learned about the College’s Ludwig von Mises Room.

He credits his first job in banking to Hillsdale and friend Tim Schut, ’08, who lived down the hall from him. His father worked for Wells Fargo, and a recommendation from him and an interview later, Weston started his new career soon after graduating.

“If you asked me if I wanted to be a banker, I don’t think I would have said yes,” said Weston, who has spent more than 14 years with Comerica in commercial banking. “But what I’m doing is generally what I wanted to be doing.”

However, those are not his only business interests. More than a decade ago, Weston decided to pursue real estate development. He and his father have built several duplexes and fourplexes in the Fairbanks, Alaska, area. They are currently working on a much larger housing development there. He said his banking experience helped when pursuing loans for his real estate ventures.

“I worked with a local bank there, and I went in, and I was on the other side,” he said of being a customer.  “Being able to speak that language really helps.”

He and his wife, Bonnie, are raising two young children. In his spare time, Weston enjoys listening to podcasts and following politics. Grateful for his Hillsdale College education and the connections it provided, he has a simple offer to any Hillsdale graduate.

“One of my policies is if anyone from Hillsdale reaches out, I will spend time to help and talk to them,” Weston said. “I had a lot of help coming out of college, and I’ve learned that people aren’t hired based on online application submissions. It’s a relationship. Having someone who’s been vouched for makes a huge difference.”

Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s senior director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.

Published in July 2025