Dr Rob Walters RFD
Dr Rob Walters RFD is the partner of Her Excellency the Honourable Caroline Wells.
He is an experienced General Practitioner, medical leader and senior defence medical officer whose career has spanned more than four decades of service across clinical medical practice, national health policy, medico-legal advisory, military medicine and public health advocacy.
Educated at The Friends’ School in Hobart, Dr Walters graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Medical Science in 1975 and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1979. He practised as a General Practitioner in Sandy Bay from 1985 and only recently retired from active practice.
Dr Walters has held numerous senior advisory and executive roles in the health sector, both in Tasmania and at a national level and served on numerous boards including as Director and Chairman of the Australian Divisions of General Practice, an inaugural Board Member of Headspace, Member of the Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Council and as a Part-time Member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. In Tasmania, he has served in leadership roles with Primary Health Tasmania, WorkCover Tasmania, the Cancer Council of Tasmania and Rural Alive and Well.
He has also enjoyed contributing to public health communication through television, radio and documentary productions.
He is currently a Director of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and is Chair of the Tasmanian Fellowship Selection Committee.
Dr Walters has also had a distinguished military career initially as a National Serviceman and then in the Army Reserve in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps where he commanded the 10th Field Ambulance and subsequently held other senior medical leadership appointments. He served overseas in East Timor with the United Nations before retiring in 2016 after 44 years of service, with the rank of Colonel.
Dr Walters has three adult daughters and two grandchildren.
He represented Tasmania in rugby union and enjoys all sports, travel, current affairs and a smokey whisky.