Christopher Walker Elected to L.A. Opera Board of Directors

Marc Stern, chairman of LA Opera's board of directors, announced today that Christopher Walker was elected to the board at a meeting held today. Mr. Walker previously served on the LA Opera board from 2003 through 2013.

"During Chris's previous tenure on our board, he distinguished himself as an invaluable asset to the company," said Mr. Stern. "Through his service as the board's treasurer and as the chair of our budget and finance committee, he worked tirelessly on behalf of our 2010 presentation of the Ring cycle, by far the company's largest project to date. It will be a great pleasure for me to work closely with him again on our efforts to break new artistic boundaries in the seasons to come."

Christopher Walker was a founding partner of Leonard Green and Partners, a Los Angeles-based private merchant bank, and he previously was a partner of Gibbons, Green & van Amerongen. He began his career with Security Pacific Bank, where he held positions in corporate banking and with its international group, including seven years in Hong Kong and the Philippines. He received a bachelor's degree from Claremont McKenna College and a master's degree from Georgetown University in international finance. He served ten years as a member of the board of trustees at LACMA including positions as vice chair of the board and chair of the budget and finance committee.

In addition to having served on the boards of LA Opera, United States Artists and KCET, Mr. Walker has also been a trustee of Claremont McKenna College for over two decades, during which time he has chaired a variety of committees and led a $129 million capital campaign. He currently serves on the Trustee Council of the National Gallery of Art and participates on its investment committee; he also serves on the board of MOCA. Mr. Walker has two sons and lives in Los Angeles and London.

About LA Opera
In just three decades of existence, LA Opera has become one of America's most exciting and ambitious opera companies. Under the leadership of Plácido Domingo (Eli and Edythe Broad General Director), James Conlon (Richard Seaver Music Director) and Christopher Koelsch (President and CEO), the company is dedicated to staging imaginative new productions, world premiere commissions and inventive stagings of the classics that preserve the foundational works while making them feel fresh and compelling.

In addition to its mainstage performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the company explores unusual repertoire each season through the LA Opera Off Grand initiative, performed in a variety of venues throughout Los Angeles. The company also presents a robust variety of educational programming and innovative community engagement offerings, experienced by more than 135,000 people each season.