Dr. Walk is the senior vice president and chief medical officer at Ventana Medical Systems.   As the head of the Department of Medical and Scientific Affairs, Dr. Walk is responsible for establishing solid medical value and indications of use for new diagnostic products.  He also works closely with the Roche diagnostics function and is a member of the divisional Medical Operating Committee.

He previously served Ventana as the Associate Medical Director of the Medical Office.  In this role, he worked closely with Dr. Thomas Grogan, the company’s founder, to provide pathological and medical  oversight across Ventana’s key discovery and development projects. He was actively involved with the Translational Diagnostics business unit in the development of biomarkers and companion diagnostics in partnership with major pharmaceutical companies, specifically in the area of oncology. 

Prior to joining Ventana, Dr. Walk held the position of Associate Director, Early Clinical Development in the oncology business unit at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Prior to that, Dr. Walk held the position of Associate Director in the Oncology Translational Medicine group, also at Novartis, where he worked at the interface between discovery research and clinical development to establish and implement biomarker development strategies for several early and late stage compounds.

Dr. Walk is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Johns Hopkins University and graduated from the University of Virginia Medical School in 1995. His pathology training was in combined anatomic and clinical pathology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. He completed a subspecialty fellowship in gynecologic pathology also at Mount Sinai, where he currently holds an academic appointment as Assistant Clinical Professor of Pathology.