Walter acquired over 20 years of technical and business experience with Baxter Healthcare Corporation, an $8 billion company based in Deerfield Illinois.  He served as the manager of Baxter's nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) laboratory in Round Lake Illinois.  Walter received a Ph.D. degree in Physical Organic Chemistry from Brown University in 1983, and a B.S. in Chemistry (with distinction, minor in History) from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1972.  He is classified as a Vietnam era veteran, having served as the Damage Control Officer on USS Basilone (DD-824).  An avid flying enthusiast, Walter is a commercial pilot, and holds FAA Flight Instructor certificates with airplane single engine, multiengine, and instrument ratings.

During his Baxter tenure, Walter was the author of approximately one thousand business and technical documents, including study protocols, study reports, standard operating procedures, laboratory guides, computer validation packages, proposals, laboratory brochures, presentations, external journal publications, external poster presentations, training sessions, employee evaluations, successful employee promotion dossiers, and successful employee divisional award nominations.