Eric Walania

About Eric

Eric Walania, managing director, is a wealth advisor with the Escamilla Team at William Blair where he is involved in a broad spectrum of activities in the practice, with a particular emphasis on client relationship development and stock selection.

Mr. Walania has been with William Blair since 2004. With more than 20 years in the financial services industry, Mr. Walania has a disciplined and systematic approach to evaluating and selecting stocks. He formerly worked as a senior associate in the firm’s equity research group, with a focus on U.S. retail and consumer stocks. Before joining William Blair, Mr. Walania worked as a research analyst at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. covering U.S. auto supplier stocks, and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. covering U.S. and Latin American beverage stocks. He was also a proprietary trader with Schonfeld Group/Trillium Trading, L.L.C.

Eric holds an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. from Dartmouth College. Living in Western Springs with his wife and two children, Eric loves reading about WWI and WWII history. He is on the Endowment Committee for The First Congregational Church of Western Springs, and previously served on the board of the Western Springs Foundation for Educational Excellence and the Auxiliary Board of Lincoln Park Zoo. A four-year starting pitcher at Dartmouth, Eric’s athletic ability is now relegated to the softball fields of Chicago, and occasionally the driving ranges and putting greens of Midwest golf courses.