Donald J. Walker was a founding partner of Arbor Partners in 1996. Arbor Partners is a Michigan-based venture capital firm committed to helping entrepreneurs build successful growth companies in enterprise software, communications and internet applications. Prior to founding Arbor Partners Mr. Walker served as Vice President and Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Comshare, Inc. from 1974 to 1996. During that time, he successfully directed the company through the well-publicized transitions from timesharing to mainframe software and then from mainframe to client/server software. Mr. Walker was a key player in the introduction of executive information systems (EIS), a new software category that grew to a significant market leadership position. He was also instrumental in moving Comshare into vertical specialization by leading its thrust into decision support and supply chain management software for the retail industry. His successful integration of two acquisitions and his proven track record of partnering with other software companies enabled Comshare to increase market share while creating new barriers for the competition. Mr. Walker was a private investor in several start-up companies and a seed investor in Network Express, which went public in 1994. He has served on the Boards of Directors for CMS Technologies, Bluespring Software, Bulbs.com, Cohesia, Sircon Corporation, and Knowlagent. Mr. Walker is a former board member of the Michigan Venture Capital Association and a former Board member of the New Enterprise Forum. He attended Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he studied business. He received a BA in Philosophy and Religion from St. Paul’s College in Washington, DC.
Donald Walker
Managing Director
