William N. Walker

Author William Walker.

William N. Walker brings to his novels a lifetime of experience as a diplomat, government official and international businessman.

Mr. Walker was Ambassador and Chief Trade Negotiator for the United States in the Tokyo Round of Multilateral Trade negotiations conducted under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in Geneva. He lived in Geneva for more than two years as the senior diplomat in residence and brings first-hand diplomatic knowledge to telling the story of Danzig. While the GATT was hardly the League of Nations, international organizations now, as then, are unwieldy and susceptible to the kinds of infighting and manipulation that we witness in the book.

As a member of the Nixon Administration, Mr. Walker was also a close observer of the political intrigue that destroyed Nixon’s presidency. He was general counsel of two government agencies and was among the principal architects of the US government’s response to the Arab Oil Embargo. Later, he served as Director of the Presidential Personnel Office for President Ford. After leaving government, he became a partner in a large Wall Street law firm, running a successful international law practice. Later, he established a company, which he continues to operate, devoted to international business that has included transactions in Europe, the former Soviet Union, Turkey, Central Asia and the Middle East. He describes himself as a recovering attorney.

Like Paul Muller, Mr. Walker is an experienced bass choir singer and he has performed many of the great works in the classical choral music repertoire, including those mentioned in the book. Again like Muller, Mr. Walker is also an accomplished athlete. He signed a professional baseball contract with the Baltimore Orioles upon graduating from college. (Dispatched to the minor leagues, it quickly became evident that he would never hit the slider and he was released.) In law school, he co-founded the Virginia Rugby Club (he was inducted into the Virginia Rugby Union Hall of Fame in 2013) and then, after having moved to Chicago, started what is now the famed Chicago Lion Rugby Football Club. He doesn’t play much tennis any longer, but he is a keen golfer and member of Winged Foot Golf Club (where he and his partner won the overall championship of the club-wide member’s tournament in 2013, a feat memorialized on a plaque in the Grill Room of that renowned institution).

Mr. Walker is a winner of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Wesleyan University. He is the father of three grown children and lives with his wife on Cape Cod.

He is the author of four additional novels.  See www.authorwilliamwalker.com