Dr Bill Cockburn, who’s a fully trained and qualified plastic surgeon based in Brisbane, was elected to the presidency of the nation’s peak body for plastic surgeons in May 2005 and succeeds Dr Norman Olbourne from Sydney.

He says one of the challenges facing the profession today is to maintain high standards and ethics in an increasingly competitive environment. And in the months ahead he intends to do just that.

“Legislation should be introduced to stop non-surgeons from claiming to be surgeons,” says Dr Cockburn. “And we’d like to see truth in advertising regulations enforced to protect the public.”

Born and raised in Queensland, Dr Cockburn runs a busy practice in Brisbane where he focuses on treating patients with skin, and head and neck cancer, as well as performing a range of other plastic and cosmetic surgery procedures.

He graduated as a medical practitioner from the University of Queensland in 1979, and then spent the next 10 years gaining specialist qualifications and practical experience as a plastic surgeon. In 1989, he became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) – the gold standard of plastic surgery in Australia.

Like many Queenslanders, Bill Cockburn likes to spend weekends with his family on the water, fishing, sailing, swimming and surfing.

But his biggest passion is plastic surgery. Ask him what attracts him to the profession and he’ll tell you it’s the diversity of the work.

“It’s the best job in the world. People come to me in trouble and I fix their problems if I can. What plastic surgeons do is unique and different every time.”

Bill Cockburn is married with four children.

With his direct and non-nonsense style, it can be sometimes difficult to discover the man behind the public persona. But his colleagues that know him well describe a family man with a musical bent. It’s not unusual, they say, to see the plastic surgeon at home performing on his acoustic guitar, either delivering a taste of seventies déjà vu or accompanying his daughter on the flute.

The Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons was set up more than 35 years ago to develop and maintain high standards of surgical practice and ethics, to advise government on matters affecting plastic surgeons in Australia and to provide the public with information on plastic and cosmetic surgery procedures.

All members of the Society have satisfied the rigorous training requirements laid down by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) or its equivalent. This is the only recognised surgical qualification in Australia and is the gold standard by which all other aspirants in this area are measured.