Walker Stapleton

Stapleton was a 2014 Aspen Institute Rodel Fellow.

Stapleton began his private sector career in 1997 at Hambrecht & Quist as an investment banker. Two years later he became Director of Business Development for Live365. He subsequently served as CEO and CFO of various private and publicly traded companies, until assuming office in 2011.

Walker Stapleton (born April 15, 1974) is an American politician who served two terms as Colorado's State Treasurer from 2011 to 2019. Stapleton was the Republican nominee for Governor of Colorado in the 2018 election, which he lost to Democrat Jared Polis.

Stapleton's mother, Dorothy Walker Stapleton, is a first cousin once removed of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, making him a second cousin of former U.S. President George W. Bush and former Florida governor Jeb Bush. He has maintained close ties to the Bush family and credits George H. W. Bush for inspiring him to enter politics. His father is diplomat Craig Roberts Stapleton. His great-grandfather, Benjamin F. Stapleton, served as mayor of Denver from 1923 to 1931.

Stapleton's family has been active in Colorado since the early 1900s. Walker was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, attending the private Brunswick School. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts, and holds a graduate degree in business economics from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Harvard Business School.