Tavis Mclaren is an Infantry Platoon Sergeant in the Australian Defence Force, who is currently posted to the Royal Military College in Canberra. He is a husband and a father to two toddlers. After graduating high school in 2001, he enlisted in the Australian Army Reserves. After my Reserve Infantry training I attended Bendigo TAFE where he gained a Diploma in Graphic Design in 2003. After graduating TAFE he went on to further my studies at university in Victoria where he graduated with a Bachelor in Arts, Graphic Design in 2005. He joined the Australian Regular Army in 2012 and he has had a highly satisfying career both within the Infantry and broader Defence Force. He has enjoyed working within Regular and Reserve Infantry Regiments, as well as Officer and Soldier training institutions within Army.
His passion within infantry lies within Anti-Armour Operations. As the Anti-Armour Platoon Sergeant for the 7th Battalion, he learned to harness my previous career experience and take stock in advice from my peers and subordinates in order to build a mission support capability that would see the specialisation evolve and nest within the Armoured Infantry environment, whilst maintaining operational readiness. It was a challenging and rewarding posting that developed operational and strategic outlook on joint planning and refined his ability to build trusted professional relationships and achieve Army preparedness directives on a daily basis.
His current position as a Small Group Instructor in III Class at the Royal Military College finds him in a diverse learning environment. It has afforded him the opportunity to mentor Staff Cadets whilst giving back to Army some of his experience in soldier management, planning and operational knowledge that may assist in shaping our next future leaders and broadening the military exposure and experience of our international partner forces.